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Old Martin was a large 
It was said that during Old Martin's stay at the Tower, in 1816, a Yeomen Warder on night duty saw a ghostly bear near the Martin Tower. Terrified, he struck at it with his bayonet only to find it went right through the vision and stuck into the door behind. As the story goes, the guard died of shock a few hours afterwards. Old Martin was not the first bear to have lived at the Tower of London because in 1251 Henry III had been given a
grizzly bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...
given in 1811, when already full-sized, to George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
by the Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
. The bear was sent to the Royal Menagerie, housed at the Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...
. Although this was the first grizzly bear in England, the king said he would rather have had been given a new tie or a pair of socks. The Royal Menagerie was closed in 1831 or 1832 by the Duke of Wellington, the governor of the Tower. The bear and other animals were moved to the new London Zoo in Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...
– Old Martin died there in 1838.
Writing in 1829 the zoologist Edward Turner Bennett said as a conclusion to his chapter on grizzly bears:
It was said that during Old Martin's stay at the Tower, in 1816, a Yeomen Warder on night duty saw a ghostly bear near the Martin Tower. Terrified, he struck at it with his bayonet only to find it went right through the vision and stuck into the door behind. As the story goes, the guard died of shock a few hours afterwards. Old Martin was not the first bear to have lived at the Tower of London because in 1251 Henry III had been given a polar bear
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can Hybrid (biology), interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear ...
by the king of Norway, Haakon the Young.
In 1999 Old Martin's skin and feet were found at the Natural History Museum, London
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...
, catalogued as a "black bear", and were returned to the Tower for a special exhibition.
See also
*List of individual bears
The following is a list of individual bears ( other than individual giant pandas) which garnered national or worldwide attention:
Actors
* Bart the Bear, a male Alaskan Kodiak bear, played the leading role in the 1988 wilderness drama, '' The Be ...
Further reading
*References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Old Tower of London Individual grizzly bears London Zoo English ghosts 1838 animal deaths Individual animals in England