Paul Jessup Biography
Paul Jessup established The Great British Teddy Bear Company & Big Red Bus English.
Paul received his education from The Royal College of Art and the renowned Camberwell School of Art. It was soon after that he decided to set up the Stone Jessup Design Consultancy. The company had its offices in Covent Garden. During his stint at its helm, Paul successfully secured exclusive contracts for consultancy services with Wedgewood, Enesco, and Royal Doulton. Thanks to this exposure, he managed to successfully build a reputation of being a creator of innovative licensed packaging for a number of the UK’s most renowned and highly-regarded Heritage Brands.
In 2001, Paul Jessup made the decision to sell Stone Jessup. It was during this time that he decided to focus more on his artistic abilities. With his vast experience and knowledge in character licensing, he decided to create a new brand- and thus, an iconic British brand was born.
The Great British Teddy Bear Company was born out of Paul’s desire to create a toy- a teddy bear for this instance- that one will choose to keep. It is that one teddy bear that people will pass on to their children with stories and the memories that are attached to it. Toys are, after all, a great means to ensure that memories that you cherish are preserved and passed on to the next generation.
At the heart of the company are the philanthropic principles that Paul has always valued. He has also come up with innovative and insightful ways to make this happen. His goal is to place the teddy bears right smack in the middle of the numerous positive experiences in life to make sure that this is not only going to bring joy to the purchaser and the recipient, but also make sure that it is going to mean something to an associated charitable institution too.
The teddy bears are created in a way where when they are gifted, they will not only encapsulate and preserve a memory, but will also make sure that an opportunity is provided to someone else so they get to reach their potential.
The success of the company can be reflected in the impressive number of bears that are being produced on a weekly basis. At present, the company is churning out 17,000 bears per week. The company has also been part of many iconic and memorable moments in the country’s history. The company was commissioned to create the limited edition Official Teddy Bears for the Royal Engagement and Wedding of William and Catherine in 2011. The company also presented the very first official Bobby Bear for the Metropolitan Police. As a way of commemorating the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, a special commemorative bear was created in her honour, complete with a miniature state crown and her coronation robe.
The success that the Great British Teddy Bear Company has been enjoying to this day is a testament to Paul’s effectiveness not only in creating a new British brand that reflects his philanthropic principles, but an iconic and well-loved one too.
Paul Jessup — A Man Behind British Teddy Bears
The Royal Air Force will be celebrating its 100th birthday on 1st April 2018. Celebrations will be marked by special events designed to commemorate, celebrate and inspire, highlighting events from the past and looking forward to the next 100 years.
In search of the perfect mascot to raise funds and awareness of the centenary, Squadron Leader Stu Phillips head of the special projects team, contacted Britain’s leading teddy bear designer founder of The Great British Teddy Bear Company, Paul Jessup.
After extensive research studying original air force uniforms; Paul hand created a standing fully jointed version of his famous Great British Teddy Bear from a specially made plush fabric, the fabric is folded and rolled between steam-heated drums in alternate directions to create vintage curled pile given the bear a traditional loved effect. The bear is wearing an authentic WW2 miniature brown leatherette, Irvin flight jacket with a working waist belt and buckle. The Jacket has been expertly lined with a contrasting faux fur fabric and is worn above an air force blue shirt and tie. His matching flight helmet has been designed with ear holes so that it fits perfectly on the teddy bears head, he even has a pair of flight goggles. ‘The detail and quality of each of the fabrics are essential to the design, the uniform must be authentic in every regard to satisfy the RAF requirements, this is a unique bear representing 100 years of service.’ said Paul Jessup.
When deciding on a name for the official RAF 100 centenary teddy bear the RAF settled on ‘Hugh’ naming their bear in recognition of General Hugh Trenchard the first Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Air Force.
The RAF created a Facebook page for @Hughtheflyingbear to follow Hugh as he travelled through the USA with the RAF, flying on as many service aircraft as can be arranged to celebrate the USAF 70th Anniversary and the RAF Centenary. With an official Aircrew Flying Log Book to record his exploits, Hugh will eventually become a historical artefact and will be donated to the RAF Museum in the UK.
Hugh’s journey will also be recorded through participation thanks to an idea from designer Paul Jessup; ‘each air force base has their own unique embroidered patch, Hugh is only 36cm tall, so his jacket is not big enough to wear over 200 patches, so I designed a replica military kit bag in authentic heavyweight khaki cotton. This keeps Hugh clean as he travels, and every base will sew on their own patch to record his journey before he lands at the RAF Museum in London. It is an honour and a privilege to create this commemorative artefact.’ said Paul Jessup.
PAUL JESSUP — Owen Scott
It is almost 70 years since he took part in some of the most daring raids of World War Two, but for Owen Scott the memories are as fresh as if it happened yesterday.
The 91 year-old war hero piloted an incredible 30 bombing raids over Germany and was awarded the DFC in recognition of his bravery, and now he hopes that the stories of what he endured, will be passed on to another generation.
To mark his incredible achievements, the former Flight Lieutenant was given the first Veteran Teddy Bear, designed by Paul Jessup , launched this month to honour the brave servicemen and women of World War Two. Dressed by injured ex-military personnel, the commemorative bears wear the traditional blazer and beret of Britain’s war veterans and have been created with the idea that veterans will use them as a way of passing on their personal stories to future generations. This concept is the brain child of Paul Jessup, founder of the The Great British Teddy Bear Company; ‘We have created a Teddy Bear that enables our heroes, our grandparents and great grandparents to connect with our children so that their stories are preserved and can be passed onto the next generation. Each Veteran Teddy Bear is dressed by wounded ex-servicemen at the Poppy Factory in London which provides employment to our brave servicemen as they assimilate back into civilian life. It has been an honour to meet RAF Veterans like Flight Lieutenant Owen Scott they were the inspiration behind this very special Teddy Bear and I was so proud to watch him being interviewed on This Morning ,’ said Paul Jessup.
Owen, who gave his bear to his great-grandchildren Bailey, four, and Zac, two, explained: “I do think it’s important to tell the stories of what happened to us in the war. I find so many young people today have no idea. They say to me: ‘Did you really? No! Is that really what happened?’
“Paul Jessup’s Teddy Bears are a lovely way to pass on my experiences. I don’t know if young Bailey and Zac will really remember my stories when they grow up, but if they’ve got the teddy bears, then that is a way of keeping the memories alive.
“I want them to know Bomber Command isn’t just something that happened in a film; it happened to their Great Grandfather and thousands of other men like me. And then maybe Bailey and Zac will pass the bears on to their children and pass on the memories too.”
Owen himself was just 22, when in 1944, he found himself the pilot of a Lancaster Bomber, being sent on dangerous raids over Germany. The odds against survival were poor. Of every 100 airmen who joined Bomber Command, 45 were killed, 6 were seriously wounded, 8 became Prisoners of War, and only 41 escaped unscathed.
Owen himself had plenty of near-death experiences. After one mission he returned home with 52 bullet holes in his plane and on one night raid, his bombs would not release. “I had a two ton bomb and five 500lb high explosive bombs on board and spent nearly all night over the North Sea in the Lancaster doing aerobatics and allsorts, trying to shake them off, but nothing worked,” he recalls.
“I called control and they told me to either put the aircraft on automatic pilot and head out to sea and jump out in a parachute, or come in to land. I put it to the crew and no-one fancied bailing out over the sea, least of all me. So eventually I decided I’d go back to the airfield.
“It was pitch black and you couldn’t always make a good landing, but this night I was dead lucky. My rear gunner said to me: ‘Skip — that was the best landing you’ve made in your life, or will ever make again.’ When we got in we found the bombs were only resting on the doors of the bomb bay and were likely to fall off any minute.”
One of Owen’s most terrifying missions was a bombing attack on Berlin where his plane was caught in Nazi spotlights. “Suddenly 40 search lights went on together and it was just like daylight,” he recalls. “Once that happens you’ve had it, because they can work out on their radar what height you are flying at and what speed and then they can set about you.
“I had to get out of it before they shot me down, so I put the plane into all sorts of corkscrews and did all sorts of aerodynamic tricks — diving and climbing and changing course. I was flying far too fast for the aircraft and really risking it, but I managed to get out with my life.”
Owen was also involved in the 1945 bombing of the German city of Dresden, which destroyed 15sq miles of the city centre, killing 25,000 people. “It took us six-and-a-half hours to fly there in the dark and we were fired at over Germany,” Owen recalls. “I was on the second raid, one of 559 Lancaster planes. There had been a raid before us and we saw the lights in the sky from 150 miles away and couldn’t understand what it was.
“When we got there, there were flames everywhere. My navigator never liked to look at things happening outside the plane, but I made him come out. I said to him: ‘I have never seen anything like it and I hope I never see anything like it again. The place is on fire.’ We’d thought we were just bombing a junction that the German supplies were passing through. We had no idea until after we got back that we’d done what we did.”
Even on Owen’s final mission in 1945, tragedy almost struck. Having carried out 29 raids he had only one more flight to do. What’s more, talk was rife that the war would be over within weeks.
He recalls: “It was a beautiful, sunny day and I said: ‘boys, it’s a breeze; this is going to be a celebration.’ Then just as I got to the end of the runway to take off, an engine went, so straightaway I had only three engines.
“Three minutes from reaching the target another Lancaster came up alongside me. He was only 20 yards from me and we saluted each other, when suddenly a German plane came in and shot this guy down. I couldn’t believe it. It was so quick and he dived away so we couldn’t get a shot at him. The Lancaster went down and down. We’d all thought it was a breeze, but that poor guy never made it.”
After the war Owen went into business, eventually running a hotel in Cornwall. Today he is retired and lives in Stratford on Avon with his wife Nan, 87. The couple have four children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and it is they that Owen hopes the Paul Jessup’s Veteran Bear will reach the most. “They loved the bear the minute they saw it and hopefully when they are older they will understand its significance and pass it onto their children with a story about me” he says.
“I’m not trying to glorify war by any means, but at the same time it’s important that the veterans’ stories live on, particularly now we are all in our 80s or 90s. There are still wars in other countries, but in this country now most people have no experience of it. It’s important that we don’t forget.”
