This chapter exists of an overview of the life of Christopher Robin Milne (1882 - 1956). A description of the Christopher Robin in the Pooh stories van be found here.
Christopher Robin with his favorite bear.
On August 21, 1920, in Chelsea, a son was born to
Dorothy and Alan Alexander Milne, Christopher Robin Milne. At the families country
home at Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield in Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, about an hour's
drive from London is where A. A. Milne and his family came to vacation. It's the
area he used as the setting for his famous books, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh
Corner. The famous Poohsticks Bridge is located near the village of Upper
Hartfield. And within Ashdown Forest, you might find Piglet's beech tree, or Kanga
and Roo's home at a sandy part of the forest near Gill's Lap (Galleon's Lap), an
"enchanted place" in the forest. East of Gill's Lap is the North Pole,
discovered by Pooh, situated on privately owned land across a narrow, shallow
stream. East of Cotchford Farm are the Six Pine Trees. A bit to the southeast
of those is Owl's house, situated in the Five Hundred Acre Wood, known in the books as the
Hundred Acre Wood.
As a young child, Christopher enjoyed being associated with the Pooh stories. He and
his friends once put on a play in the forest for the parents, enacting out one of the
stories. He also took part in helping his father come up with the stories. It
was difficult for Christopher to remember which of the stories were based on what he did
or if what he did was based on the stories.
It wasn't until boarding school at Stowe, at the age of 10, that Christopher began to hate
his association with Christopher Robin. Away from the family and amongst a new group
of boys, he was often teased about being Christopher Robin.
Like his father had done, Christopher went to Trinity College in Cambridge on a
mathematics scholarship in 1939. He only spent about eight months at school, having
lost his love for mathematics and deciding to join the army to help with the war effort.
World War II was just breaking out. Christopher decided to try and get into the
Royal Engineers (known as Sappers) since he enjoyed carpentry. His father wrote to
the Under Secretary of State and several army officers to make sure that Christopher got
placed with the Sappers and not in the Infantry. While waiting to hear back,
Christopher joined the Local Defense Volunteers, or the Home Guard as it was later
called. He spent eight months with the group before he was called up in November to
join a Royal Engineer training. It wasn't until February after passing a second
examination, he joined the training battalion and in July, he was assigned to HQRE 56th
(London) Division. Although Christopher didn't see much fighting himself, he had
managed to catch malaria, get stung by a scorpion, and discovered a new type of land
mine. This qualified him to receive the Africa Star.
In Italy in October of 1944, he was wounded near Sant'Arcangelo, on the edge of the Plain
of Lombardy. He was evacuated to Fano where a piece of shrapnel was removed from his
head. By December, he had rejoined the division.
After the war, things started to go bad for Christopher. He had gone back to
Cambridge in 1946 and graduated in 1947 with a degree in English literature. He
tried to be a writer, but there wasn't the market for light stories as there had been for
his father. It was at this point in his life that Christopher was most upset with
his father.
He would work briefly for the Central Office of Information, providing facts and figures
to government speakers. He also worked briefly as a furniture buyer, but was more
interested in designing furniture, and so drifted from department to department for 15
months before quitting. On July 24, 1948, Christopher married Lesley de Selincourt,
his cousin. His parents did not approve of his choice. Partly because they had
hoped that Christopher might one day marry long-time friend Anne Darlington, and partly
because of Lesley's parents. The de Selincourts were not always on speaking terms
with each other. In particular my mother hadn't spoken to her brother Aubrey for
about thirty years. That was why we had never met before. Christopher had
taken it upon himself to meet his mother's family, and that was how he met Lesley.
They hit if off right away.
Christopher was still having troubles finding a job in London. He had written some
occasional talks for the BBC, but it wasn't permanent. That, and the conflict he was
having with his parents, caused Lesley and him to leave London in 1951. They moved
to the village of Stoke Fleming and set up a bookshop in nearby Dartmouth. For
twenty years he and his wife ran the shop together. At first it was a struggle to
make ends meet, but later the business flourished, a transformation largely brought about
by the thriving schools' library service which Milne helped to build up in the county of
Devon. As he sat behind the counter of his bookshop, matronly clients bringing in
their progeny to shake hands with "the original Christopher Robin" constantly
pestered Milne. He would do so with a wanly polite smile. For a fee of �10 �
donated to the Save the Children Fund � he would also sign one of his father's books.
Originally, they lived above the shop, but that changed in 1956. The reason was the
birth of their daughter, Clare. They moved to a house on the edge of town, and
filled the second floor with gift items. Clare was a special daughter.
Christopher described her as being "spastic". She suffered from cerebral
palsy. Her special needs led to some changes with the Milne's. When she was
old enough, she was sent to a special boarding school. When she was home, either
Christopher or Lesley needed to be home with her at all times, so extra help was needed at
the bookstore. Christopher also found an outlet for his carpentry skills, as he now
designed tools that Clare was able to use.
A. A. Milne never had the chance to meet his granddaughter, as he died a few months before
Clare was born. Christopher did not begin to collect royalties from the Pooh books
until 1971, after his mother died.
In 1974 Milne broke a lifetime's habit of reticence and published the first of three
autobiographical books, The Enchanted Places, an account of his childhood and its
disturbing aftermath. In 1979 he followed this book with The Path Through the Trees
which deals with his adult life, and the struggles that he went through to escape from his
father's shadow and find himself. He also wrote other books, mostly short essays on
his beliefs and observations, but they were published in small numbers and didn't receive
as much attention as his first two books.
In his later years, Christopher was very active in the community. He pushed for
better libraries in the schools, campaigned to save his childhood stomping grounds in
Ashdown Forest from oil prospectors, and gave his time to promoting the Save the Children
Fund.
Christopher Robin Milne died at age 76 on April 20, 1996, leaving behind his wife, Lesley,
and his daughter, Clare.
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