Christopher
Robin Milne was born on 21 August 1920 at 11 Mallord St, Chelsea at 8am in
the morning. His parents had decided that the baby was going to be a girl
and that they would call her Rosemary, when it turned out to be a boy they
wanted to call him Billy. They decided against this on the basis that Billy
was too informal a name and they disliked the name William. Finally they decided
that it would be better anyway to give the child two first names as this would
help to distinguish him from other Milne's, and each parent choose a name.
Despite officially naming their son Christopher Robin, his parents often referred to him as Billy. When Christopher began to talk he pronounced his own surname as Moon not Milne, a name his family also adopted, referring to him as "moon", "Billy" or a Billy Moon, but very rarely as Christopher Robin. In later life he became known just as Christopher.
For his first birthday Christopher Robin received an Alpha Farnell Teddy Bear
(similar to this one) purchased from Harrod's in London. This bear later went
on to become immortalised as Winnie the Pooh.
As an adult Christopher Robin was interviewed about his famous bear. He described
Pooh as being about two feet tall,light fawn, silky fur (about half an inch
long) that got darker and balder with age; once or twice went to the cleaners;
frequently lost his eyes; was vocal only for a short period but thereafter
dumb; never wore any clothes; was my fairly constant companion on both real
and imaginary journeyings".
In keeping with Middle Class English tradition in the 1920's Christopher Robin was brought up by a Nanny who looked after him most of the day. Meetings with his parents were restricted to short periods just after breakfast, at tea time and in the evening just before he went to bed. Christopher Robin's nanny from the age of 18months until he left for boarding school at the age of 9 was Olive Brockwell (renamed Alice for the sake of the Rhyme about Buckingham Palace).
The
success of the Pooh books meant that Christopher Robin was the focus of much
publicity in the form of interviews/articles, which being a shy boy, he did
not enjoy at all. In an attempt to shield Christopher from publicity as he
was about to go away to Prep School at Gibbs, London in 1929, his father announced
that The House at Pooh Corner would be the last Christopher Robin book. The
book ends with Christopher Robin telling Pooh that he is leaving the Enchanted
Forest and that he may have changed when he returns. Though in the last line
Milne attempts to soften the blow of 'growing up" by adding "wherever they
go and whatever happens to them on the way that in the enchanted
place on the top of the forest a little boy and his bear will always be
playing". The popularity of the Pooh books however made it almost impossible
for Christopher Robin to enjoy a 'normal' life even though no more Pooh books
were written.
From Gibbs Christopher Robin went on to boarding school at Stowe where he learned to box as a way to defend himself from the taunting of his classmates. In 1939 he won a fellowship to read English at Trinity College, Cambridge.
When the Second World War broke out Christopher deciding to abandon his studies after only one year and to join the army, but he failed the medical and was turned down. He did however eventually manage to join the second training battalion of the Royal Engineers in February 194, after his father had 'pulled a few strings' and he obtained his commission in July 1942. He was then posted to the Middle East and Italy for three years.
Christopher had always had a close relationship with his father, but after being away for some time when he was discharged from the army the bond seemed to have been broken and he grew to resent his father's exploitation of him, and he hated the books that had made him famous. After being discharged from the army he returned to Cambridge and completed his studies, graduating with a Third Class Honours degree in English.
In July 1948 he married his cousin Lesley Selincourt, against his mother's wishes, she had wanted him to marry his childhood friend Anne and did not have a good relationship with her brother, who was Lesley's father. Christopher and Leslie moved to Dartmouth in 1951 to start a bookshop, an ironical decision considering the damage that Christopher had suffered because of books. His Mother did not agree with his choice of occupation either and thought that he would have to meet Pooh fans all the time in the bookshop, which would be something he would hate. Despite the inevitable Pooh associations Christopher's career as a bookseller turned out to be a success. He returned occasionally to visit his father after he became ill, but once he died did not visit his mother again in the fifteen years up to her death
In 1974 Christopher finally decided to publish the first of three autobiographical books. The Enchanted Places gave an account of his childhood and of the problems that he had encountered because of the Pooh books. In 1979 this was followed by The Path Through the Trees and in 1982 he published his last book The Hollow on the Hill.
Christopher Robin Milne died on 20 April 1996.
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