Bruin: The Chatham Dockyard Moneybox Bear

This bear, Bruin, is a moneybox. He was made for me by my father's colleagues at Chatham Dockyard. I was born in January 1943.

An article about him (Bruin) was included in the Medway Messenger on 24th May 2018. It mentions that he was referred to as a rabbit. I believe this is because there was a lot of stealing going on at the Dockyard, and the authorities said that men could only take home one rabbit. St Mary's Island is next to Chatham Dockyard, and the men who worked there were allowed to trap and take home one rabbit a day. They used to smuggle items, like Bruin, out of the Dockyard inside a dead rabbit that they had trapped.

My father, William Watson, was a chargeman of fitters, but he began his career with the steam traction engine company Aveling and Pater in Strood, Kent. My father was also in the Home Guard. He was appalled that he was asked to man the top layer of anti-aircraft batteries, as he was quite short! He also refused to move coal, something the Home Guard was being asked to do, as he was a shipwright at the Dockyard and didn't want to injure himself.

The bear moneybox is made of some kind of metal, which looks as if it was cast in two halves and is held together by a single bolt. I used him when I was a child, although the only way to get the money out was with a knife through the slot in the top of his head.