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This teddy was made for a little girl of 6 who was billeted in Aston, Birmingham, during World War II while her father was in the army. It was made by her father as a present: a remembrance of him when he was away on active service. He worked it up out of old army blankets and pieces of leather while he was at training camp in Wiltshire, sending it in a parcel before he left. But the little girl hated it, and left it behind when she was able to return home; so it was kept by one of the children whose family she was billeted with, who, in turn, gave it to the museum in 1999.
We don't know any more of the story: who the little girl was, or her name, whether she and her father survived the war, or whether he was saddened that his gift, so painstakingly and lovingly made, had been rejected. But it is a story which has a resonance beyond its immediate history, reminding us of the sadness and separation which war brings, and has always brought, to people everywhere.