Bruno the Military Bear

I was clearing out some drawers today and came across this old photo of Bruno the Military Bear. From 1984-1999 I had a gift company selling gifts to servicemen who were overseas, away from their families. Having been an army wife whose husband was away for our birthdays and many Christmases, I felt that this would be a great service to offer. You can’t go shopping when you are in the middle of the desert in Iraq!!

Three or four times a year - Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas and Easter, we created a new catalogue for the servicemen and women to choose gifts from. We sent these catalogues all over the world, anywhere where we knew that servicemen and women would be alone. Places like The Falklands, Northern Ireland, Belize, Iraq, and Norway etc etc. We sold everything from Helium Balloons, lingerie, silk roses, champagne, and of course Bruno The Military Bear, Bertie the RAF Bear and Jack the Naval Bear. The bears all wore authentic dress with the right coloured beret and Regimental badges or tally bands with their ship’s name on if they were in the Navy. The person overseas would order the gift for their loved ones based either in the UK or in Germany and we would pack it beautifully, hand write their message and send it to them. Sometimes it was very hard work, but we had a lot of fun.