World War Two Soldier’s Bear Attends Every Remembrance Parade with Granddaughter

For 14 years, a teddy bear that once accompanied a soldier during wartime has been carried in his granddaughter’s pocket to every Remembrance parade. Thomas Horn, a Watford native, was serving with the Suffolk Regiment 2nd Battalion in India, in his mid-20s, when World War Two commenced. Nicola Christy, his 57-year-old granddaughter from March, Cambridgeshire, stated that her grandfather consistently carried the small red bear, even throughout the Burma Campaign. He presented the bear to her when she was approximately nine years old, and it now accompanies her to every parade, serving as her way to “remember him this way”. Mrs. Christy mentioned that the bear measures approximately four inches (10cm) in height. She acknowledged that it is now “very tatty… and its eyes are long gone”. She believes that “Granddad Horn,” as he was known, received the bear from his wife Elsie prior to his deployment to India. “The 2nd Battalion was in India when war broke out,” she recounted. He participated in the Burma Campaign and the engagements in the Arakan and at Imphal in March 1944. “At the end of the war the battalion was stationed in Lahore and he was demobilised to the Army Reserve (class Z) on 19 March 1946 as a corporal.” Mrs. Christy stated that she does not recall playing with the bear extensively during her childhood, adding that it resides in her jewellery box “and only comes out at Remembrance”. She started participating in town parades 14 years ago, initially as a cub leader. “I’ve paraded every year in some form or other – this year as the wife of the mayor of March,” she commented. She concluded, “The bear is always there in my pocket – it’s my way of remembering my grandparents.”