After Queen Elizabeth’s death
Royals donate Paddington bears
A teddy bear outside Buckingham Palace in memory of the late Queen.
© Simon Ward Photography/Shutterstock
Hundreds of teddy bears that have been placed in public places since the Queen’s death are to be cleaned and donated.
Every child in Great Britain knows the children’s book character Paddington Bear. At least since the platinum throne jubilee of the late Queen Elizabeth, †96, many associate the cuddly bear with the red hat and the blue jacket with her. The two are each in their own way symbols of Great Britain – a shared videoin which they meet for tea on the monarch’s anniversary, became a viral hit.
So it was that since the Queen’s death, Paddington Bears have piled up outside royal residences and at public mourning sites where mourners in Britain had laid them in memory of the Queen. Hundreds of teddy bears gathered in front of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Green Park and Hyde Park.
Queen Camilla amidst the bears
The royals have now decided to donate the bears to the children’s charity “Barnado’s”, whose patron has been Queen Camilla, 75, since 2016. Among other things, on Twitter, the royal family shares a photo of Camilla in the midst of numerous bears and writes that these are some of the more than 1,000 teddy bears that were laid in memory of the Queen and are now being donated to the organization.
According to the palace, the bears are said to have been scrubbed “to look their best before arriving at their new homes”. It goes on to say that it is hoped “that the teddy bears will be loved by children for many years to come”.