Colin D Gordon

“It still rankles: I used to carry him around everywhere with me”. This was how the Libertines singer and guitarist, Pete Doherty, describes, in his recently published memoir “A Likely Lad”, the moment in 2007 when his then girl-friend, the super-model Kate Moss, poured petrol over his beloved teddy bear, Pandy, and set it alight. It was a clear indication, along with her smashing up his vintage 1930’s Gibson guitar, that their tumultuous two-year romance was over.

Doherty’s evident nostalgia for Pandy, however, is far from unusual. The Sun columnist, Zoe Hu, reported on 18^th January that Prince Andrew has five teddies and soft toys that have to be put in specific positions on his bed every night, which, as the journalist Tanya Gold noted somewhat caustically in the Evening Standard on 20^th June, will at least keep him company during his enforced retirement from royal duties.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with one of her teddy bears.

According to Owen Bowcott, the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent, Margaret Thatcher (British Prime Minister from 1979 – 1990) had two teddy bears called Humphrey and Mrs Teddy, which she was extremely reluctant to part with. When Gyles Brandreth, the founder of the Teddy Bear Museum in Stratford-upon-Avon asked if he could borrow them temporarily, he was informed by her political office that this was not possible because the teddy bears had “other commitments that month”.

“Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear” by Elvis Presley topped the pop charts on July 8 1957

As the “Bear Essentials” website points out, lots of famous people have been known for their affection for their Teddy Bears. This doesn’t, though, only apply to celebrities or politicians. A survey conducted in the UK by the hotel chain Travelodge, cited by the Huffington Post and United Press International, revealed that 35% of the 6,000 people questioned had admitted that they sleep with Teddy Bears.

The company initiated its investigation after it’s staff had tried to track down the owners of more than 75,000 bears that had been inadvertently left behind in its 452 hotels in England and discovered that the owners were mainly adults, not children. The resulting statistics indicated that 25% of male respondents take their teddy bear with them when going away on business, one-in-ten single men hide their teddy bear when their girl-friend visits , and that 15% of men but just 10% of women treat their teddy bears as their best friend and share their intimate secrets with them.

Another study, this time by the domestic appliance organisation Hotpoint to celebrate the launch of its Active Care washing machine, discloses that 44% of British people still keep their childhood teddy, 11% take their current special soft toy on holiday with them and 5% surreptitiously when they go to work.. Furthermore, that when teddy bears are lost (or destroyed, as with Doherty’s “Pandy”) 21% of men feel “devastated”, compared to 19% of women. Professor Bruce Hood at Bristol University’s School of Psychological Science doesn’t see any harm in sleeping with a teddy. It’s about having a sentimental attachment to things, he observes, and is more hygienic than having a pet on the bed. He does, though, recommend giving Teddy an occasional bath.

Pudsey Bear

The BBC News business commentator, Lucy Burton, has highlighted the fact that although there were once more than 30 teddy factories in Britain, most have closed down due to competition from cheaper versions imported from China. Nevertheless, as the Collectors Club of Great Britain emphasises, the teddy bear image has become increasingly used as a mascot for charities and sporting events, both in the UK and around the world – one example being the yellow Pudsey Bear with a multi-coloured eye-band created by the Yorkshire designer Joanna Ball as the emblem for the annual BBC TV Children In Need appeal.

Queen Elizabeth II having tea with Paddington Bear at Windsor Castle.

Queen Elizabeth II with Paddington Bear: Tea-time at Windsor Castle.

Lynda Fairhurst’s Teddy Bear collection.

Teddy Bears also featured in this year’s Platinum Jubilee, with the Queen herself being filmed having tea with Paddington Bear at Windsor Castle and Beale Wildlife Park, of Lower Basildon in Pangbourne, celebrating the event by hosting a “teddy bear picnic” from 2nd-5^th of June. Anyone looking for a new Teddy Bear can choose from among the 18,000 in stock at the World Of Bears shop in Taunton, Somerset. This is unlikely to include Lynda Fairhurst, the Wiltshire woman who has put her collection of 1,500 teddy bears, amassed over 58 years, up for auction for a possible combined total of £35,000 . Although they were all lovely, she declared, they were getting out of control. There were so many, she could barely get in or out of her bed.

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