The story of three teddy bears that ended up in the British Army's SAS

The British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) is one of the most prestigious special operations groups in the world.

Ted Coningsby: the teddy bear who managed to fly in a Eurofighter and with the Red Arrows
A Spanish Harrier II wins a RAFCTE trophy in England and flies with a small giraffe

Founded in 1941 by David Stirling, the SAS has fought in numerous locations, setting the standard for decades for other elite units around the world. Today, this special forces unit comprises three regiments, all based in England: 21 SAS, based at Regent's Park Barracks, London; 22 SAS, based at Stirling Lines, Herefordshire; and 23 SAS, based in Birmingham, West Midlands.

Besides possessing an excellent special operations force, the United Kingdom also has a great tradition of bears and teddy bears. It is the land of Paddington Bear, the Peruvian bear created by the writer Michael Bond in 1958, who named one of London's railway stations after him. It is also the land of Winnie the Pooh, created in 1926 by the English writer A.A. Milne. Furthermore, Great Britain is home to Ted Coningsby, the teddy bear who managed to fly in a Eurofighter and with the Red Arrows (he is already a celebrity in the British aviation world) and to Geoffrey the giraffe, whose story I told you here in 2024, a little aviator who He has flown in many different aircraft (including a Spanish Harrier II) for charity.

Following that tradition, a very curious initiative emerged in 2007: the Hero Bear, launched by the charity Help for Heroes (H4H), created that same year by Bryn Parry (1956-2023) and his wife Emma, ​​after witnessing the deplorable treatment of British Armed Forces veterans at a public swimming pool. Bryn was a Captain in the Royal Green Jackets, a famous infantry regiment of the British Army, and was also a talented cartoonist.

Bryn was the creator of Hero Bear, a bear that helps Help for Heroes raise funds to support British veterans who have been wounded or maimed in the line of duty, contributing to their rehabilitation. Bryn drew a Hero Bear for the Army, Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and Royal Air Force (RAF), as a way to better reach the public. In order to raise funds, H4H also sold Hero Bear teddy bears, some of them wearing camouflage uniforms.

Yesterday, the YouTube channel TheKitLocker published the first of three videos (I'll add the other two here when they're released) about three Hero Bears that ended up in the SAS: "when we were manufacturing special forces clothing, we couldn't resist turning three of these bears into miniature SAS heroes– each decked out in authentic kit from different eras", the description reads. "Two of the bears were auctioned off on eBay to raise money for Help for Heroes", and the one we see in the video is the third:

TheKitLocker has already announced that the third video in the series will show "the tactical training and selection process these bears undertook." I can't wait to see it, hehe. Anyway, I know an article like this might not be what you were expecting in the special forces section of this blog, but I thought it was a really nice story to start the year off right. Happy 2026 to everyone!

+ UPDATED 10:00 PM CET: TheKitLocker has just published the second video in this series:

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Main image: TheKitLocker / Rest of the photos: Help for Heroes.