The Call 1914 & Wojtek the Soldier Bear
Why is it significant?
Stand in front of the young soldier sitting on his bronze rock, a rifle across his knees, gazing up towards the Castle as if he has just heard something.
Key Facts
| Place | The Call 1914 & Wojtek the Soldier Bear |
|---|---|
| Address | West Princes Street Gardens, Princes Street, Edinburgh EH2, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.95100, -3.20100 |
| Part of Walk | Painted, Carved and Planted: Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens and the Mound |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand in front of the young soldier sitting on his bronze rock, a rifle across his knees, gazing up towards the Castle as if he has just heard something. Behind him, a long frieze shows men stepping out of their ordinary lives, workers, farmers and students, with pipers at their head, all moving towards the war. This is The Call, 1914, the Scottish American War Memorial.
It was paid for by Americans of Scottish descent and unveiled in 1927 as a gift to Scotland, in memory of the Scots who fought in the First World War. The sculptor, Robert Tait McKenzie, was Canadian-born and worked in Philadelphia. He was also a doctor and a pioneer of physical education who had treated wounded soldiers, and he knew bodies from the inside. Look at how carefully he modelled the young man's hands.
The frieze is not triumphant. These men are walking into a war that killed a terrible number of Scots, and McKenzie shows them earnest, uncertain and ordinary. Edinburgh has dozens of war memorials, but this quiet one is among the finest pieces of public sculpture in the city.
A few steps west stands a very different bronze: a soldier walking beside a large bear. This is Wojtek, adopted as a cub in Iran in 1942 by soldiers of the Polish II Corps. He travelled with them through the Middle East and on to Italy, where, to get him aboard a troopship, they enlisted him officially as a private. At Monte Cassino in 1944, the story goes, he helped carry crates of artillery shells.
After the war the Polish soldiers were stationed in the Scottish Borders, with Wojtek, who then went to Edinburgh Zoo and lived there until 1963. Old comrades visited and threw him cigarettes, which he ate. The statue by Alan Herriot was unveiled in 2015. Now continue west to the end of the gardens and climb up to Princes Street at the corner of Lothian Road, by the Gothic church of St John.