Wojtek the Bear

The Wojtek project finally  comes to fruition.

Princes Street Gardens has a  brand new monument.

Wojtek was enlisted with the Polish Army in WWII. He served with his human comrades in Italy and at the end of the war came with his unit to a camp in Berwickshire.

Sadly, when he was demobbed his final years were spent in captivity in Edinburgh Zoo.  His solitude there was occasionally lightened by Poles who knew his famous backstory and spoke to him in Polish.

When we lived in Warsaw we attended a fund raising event for this project at The British Embassy. Five years later that project has now been accomplished and Wojtek is finally immortalised in bronze in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.

The only controversy that still remains is that the Poles really wanted Wojtek's statue to have been cast standing on his hind legs, for it was in that position that he stood should to shoulder with his comrades and played his part in the war as a bear in arms.