Wojtek the Soldier Bear: The Real Story and His Comrades

Wojtek the bear was a Syrian brown bear adopted as a cub by Polish soldiers in Iran in 1942. He travelled with them through the Middle East and Italy, was carried on the strength of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the 2nd Polish Corps, and came to Scotland with his unit in 1946. He lived at Edinburgh Zoo from 1947 until his death on 2 December 1963, and a bronze statue of him with a Polish soldier has stood in Princes Street Gardens since 2015.

Behind the famous bear were a few hundred real men. Many of them stayed in Britain after the war, settled in Scotland and elsewhere, and raised families here. This guide sets out what is documented about Wojtek, where the story passes into soldiers’ memories, and how to find out whether your own relative served in the same company.

How Wojtek joined Anders’ Army

In 1942 the Polish army formed in the Soviet Union under General Władysław Anders was evacuated to Iran, together with thousands of civilian refugees. According to the account given by the Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum, the cub was bought near Hamadan by Lieutenant Anatol Tarnowiecki on 8 April 1942. Most versions say a local boy had found the orphaned cub and that the soldiers paid for him with food and a few coins, though the details vary.

The bear spent his first months in a Polish refugee camp near Tehran and was then handed to the 2nd Transport Company, which accepted him on 22 August 1942. The unit was later reorganised as the 22nd Artillery Supply Company (in Polish, 22 Kompania Zaopatrywania Artylerii). His name, Wojtek, is the familiar form of Wojciech.

From Iran the company moved with the rest of the Polish forces through Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The soldiers fed him on fruit, honey and syrup, and many later recalled that he liked beer and cigarettes, wrestled with the men and rode in the cab of the company’s lorries.

Private, service number and rank

When the 2nd Polish Corps was sent to Italy, animal mascots were not allowed on the transport ships. The usual explanation is that the company solved the problem by entering Wojtek on its books as a soldier. The Imperial War Museum states that he was enlisted, assigned a service number and given the rank of private. On 13 February 1944, according to the Museum of Polish History in Warsaw, he sailed with his company from Alexandria to Taranto on the MS Batory.

Many accounts add that he was later promoted to corporal, and in Poland he is often called “Kapral Wojtek” (Corporal Wojtek). Sources differ on whether a formal promotion ever happened, so the safest summary is that he was carried as a private and is widely remembered as a corporal.

Monte Cassino: what the soldiers said

The 2nd Polish Corps fought in the fourth battle of Monte Cassino in May 1944, and the monastery ruins were taken on 18 May 1944. The 22nd Artillery Supply Company’s job was to bring shells forward to the Polish guns. The best-known part of the Wojtek story is that, during this work, the bear carried boxes of artillery ammunition from the lorries to the stacks.

This comes from the recollections of men who were there. Polish veterans told it for the rest of their lives, and a British soldier later described seeing a bear carrying shell boxes. Heritage bodies such as the Imperial War Museum and Historic Environment Scotland repeat it on that basis. No published official war diary records it, and details such as the weight of the boxes or claims that he “never dropped a shell” belong to the retelling rather than to documents. Put fairly, his comrades remembered him helping to move ammunition under battle conditions, and the story became the company’s own legend.

The company badge

After the battle the company adopted a badge showing a bear carrying an artillery shell. The Kresy-Siberia museum notes that it appeared on the men’s uniforms and on the company’s vehicles. For family historians this badge is a useful clue: a photograph of a Polish soldier with the bear-and-shell emblem on his sleeve, or a lorry with it painted on the side, points strongly to the 22nd Artillery Supply Company.

From Italy to Winfield camp in Berwickshire

Most Polish soldiers in Italy refused to return to a Poland under Soviet control. In 1946 the British government moved the 2nd Polish Corps to Britain and enrolled the men in the Polish Resettlement Corps, a holding formation announced in May 1946 that helped them move into civilian life before it was wound up in 1949.

Wojtek sailed with his company from Naples in September 1946, according to the Museum of Polish History, and landed in Scotland. The unit was quartered at Winfield, a former airfield near Hutton in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders. Historic Environment Scotland describes it as a camp for around 3,000 Polish troops, where local people grew used to seeing the bear on the airfield.

When the company was demobilised in 1947, the soldiers could not keep a fully grown bear. He was handed to Edinburgh Zoo on 15 November 1947. Former soldiers visited him there for years, and several accounts say he reacted when they spoke to him in Polish. He died at the zoo on 2 December 1963, aged about 21.

Date	Event
8 April 1942	Cub acquired near Hamadan, Iran
22 August 1942	Taken on by the 2nd Transport Company
13 February 1944	Sails from Alexandria to Taranto on MS Batory
May 1944	Battle of Monte Cassino
September 1946	Sails from Naples for Scotland; later quartered at Winfield camp, Berwickshire
15 November 1947	Given to Edinburgh Zoo
2 December 1963	Dies at Edinburgh Zoo

Memorials to Wojtek in Britain and Poland

Edinburgh: a bronze statue by Alan Herriot of Wojtek walking beside a Polish soldier, unveiled in West Princes Street Gardens on 7 November 2015 after a campaign by the Wojtek Memorial Trust. A relief panel shows the route from Iran to Scotland.
Kraków: a bronze statue by Wojciech Batko in Park Jordana, unveiled on 18 May 2014, the 70th anniversary of the capture of Monte Cassino.
London: the Imperial War Museum holds a plaque to Wojtek, and the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum has a sculpture of him.
Duns, Scottish Borders: a sculpture in the Berwickshire town, unveiled in 2016 and listed on the IWM War Memorials Register.

Other memorials have since gone up in Poland and Italy. Some are recent and not all are in public parks, so check the location locally before you visit.

The real soldiers of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company

Every photograph of Wojtek shows the men around him: drivers, mechanics, storemen and NCOs. Most had reached the army by the same route. Many were deported from eastern Poland to the Soviet Union in 1940–41, released under the 1941 amnesty, joined Anders’ Army and left the USSR for Iran in 1942. Their service is recorded in the same way as for any other soldier of the 2nd Polish Corps.

If a relative told stories about “the bear”, or a family photograph shows Wojtek, you may have a direct link. Be careful, though. Wojtek was famous across the whole corps, men from other units visited him, and he was photographed with many people in Scotland. Meeting the bear does not prove membership of the company.

How to check whether your relative served in the company

Collect family evidence first. Look for a książka żołdu (pay book), discharge papers, Polish Resettlement Corps documents, photographs showing the bear-and-shell badge, and letters with a field post number.
Apply for the MOD service record. The Ministry of Defence holds the records of Polish personnel who served under British command in the Second World War. The file normally lists units and postings, so it will show whether he was with the 22nd Artillery Supply Company and for which dates. See our guide to MOD Polish service records.
Ask the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum. Once you have the basic service details, the PISM archive in London can be asked whether its 2nd Corps collections hold anything further on the unit or the man.
Follow him into civilian life. The Polish Resettlement Corps records, the camps and hostels he passed through, and later naturalisation papers show where he settled. Our guide to Polish veterans’ resettlement in Britain explains these sources.

There is no fee to request a record from the MOD, according to GOV.UK, but searches can take up to a year. Without a death certificate some information may be withheld, unless the person died in service or was born more than 116 years ago. Check the current rules on GOV.UK before you apply, as forms and access conditions change.

An illustrative example

Suppose a family in Fife has a photograph of their grandfather in battledress with a bear-and-shell patch on his sleeve, and a naturalisation certificate giving a birthplace near Nowogródek. The MOD file confirms service with the 22nd Artillery Supply Company from 1943 to 1946, then enrolment in the Polish Resettlement Corps at Winfield. It also gives his date of birth, his parents’ names and the date he joined the army in the USSR. (This example is invented to show how the records connect.)

From the company roll back to Poland

The service file is also the best bridge back to pre-war Poland. It usually states the soldier’s exact place of birth, his parents’ names and often his pre-war address. Those details tell you which parish or civil registry to search next.

Place and date of birth lead to the parish or civil birth register. Many 2nd Corps soldiers came from the former eastern provinces, now in Belarus, Ukraine or Lithuania, whose surviving registers are split between several archives.
Parents’ names let you confirm the right baptism entry and follow the family back a generation.
Deportation and army entry details can be cross-checked in the Anders Army records and in lists of people deported to the USSR.
Spelling matters. The same man may appear as Wojciech in Polish papers and Albert or Adalbert in British ones, and a surname can change once English clerks wrote it down.

If you already have the service number and unit, most of the hard work is done. Our military research service can help read a Polish-language file and take the line back into Polish records.