Winnie the Pooh

There are various family connections

My uncle Barry Nation was at prep school at Ashdown House with John Godley (later John Kilbraken) and through John knew Christopher Milne (Christopher Robin from the books) since his father AA Milne lived in Ashdown Forest. Supposedly John Godley was 'John with the great big waterproof boots on' in from When We Were Very Young.

John Godley married Anna's aunt Penelope Reyne and their son Christopher, the current Lord Kilbraken, is Anna's first cousin.

Barry married for the second time Anne Townson who lived at Hatch Court near Taunton.

She inherited the house from her uncle Hamilton Gault who was part Canadian and before the 1st World War raised with his own money a Canadian regiment, The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. The regimental mascot was a brown bear from Winnipeg. When the regiment came over to England to fight in the war, their mascot was put in quarantine at the London zoo. So the story goes, AA Milne was at the zoo, saw this bear from Winnipeg and so came about Winnie the Pooh.