NEIL ARNOLD: 1910 Kentish bear hunt & other escapees

The Times of December 27th 1910 interrupted their Christmas coverage with some alternative festive frolics:

‘Escape of a pet bear at Folkestone – a Himalayan bear which has been brought home from India by the King’s Royal Rifles made its escape from Shorncliffe camp on Sunday night or early yesterday morning and is still at large. The bear is the regimented pet and has been kept in a very strongly built cage in the part of the camp known as Tin Town, which is in the direction of Cheriton, near Hythe. A large number of the men of the King’s Royal Rifles yesterday scoured the county in search of the bear.’

There was also a bear hunt in Sussex reported march 28th 1928. Five years later there was a ‘Monkey chase at Brighton – (August 8th 1933) – A monkey which escaped two days ago in Brighton was chased along the parade by firemen, policemen and visitors before it was captured yesterday. The monkey had taken possession of a ladies cloakroom at the western end of the covered terrace on the Madeira Drive, and his tricks included the smashing of flower pots from a high shelf in the building. He was caught yesterday morning, but managed to escape again and was recaptured by a London visitor…’

In 1959 an escaped monkey was shot at Worthing in Sussex meanwhile on January 26th January 1981 The Times reported ‘Wolf shot after zoo escape – a wolf shot in a Kent village yesterday escaped from Howletts Zoo at Bekesbourne, near Canterbury where two keepers were killed by a tigress last year. The zoo is owned by Mr John Aspinall. As a search for the escaped wolf got under way a motorist told police he had knocked it down at Littlebourne. A member of staff at the zoo shot the injured animal.’