It is now 100 years since the bear with the yellow checked trousers was first put down on paper.

Rupert the Bear first appeared in print on November 8, 1920, in the Daily Express comic strip Little Lost Bear, created by Mary Tourtel, who attended Simon Langton Girls’ School and went on to study art at what is now the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury - then the Sidney Cooper School of Art.

Her husband, Herbert Bird Tourtel, was the assistant editor, and the cartoon was dreamt up as part of a circulation battle with the Daily Mail.

Rupert - recognisable for his red jumper and yellow checked trousers and scarf - lives with his doting parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bear in Nutwood.

The good spirited bear is around seven or eight years old, and popular with all the residents of Nutwood.

He was originally illustrated as a brown bear, but became white to save on the costs of ink.

Mary, already an established author and illustrator before creating Rupert, illustrated him from 1920 right through to 1935, when she had to give up because of failing eyesight.

But Mary's contribution to the creation of Rupert is not forgotten in the city. After her husband's death, she stayed in Ivy Lane, and there is a plaque commemorating her life and work.

The Rupert Bear franchise went from strength to strength, and he appeared in books, films and on TV. Every year since 1936 a Rupert annual has also been released.

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney even bought the rights to Rupert from the Express newspapers a day after the Beatles broke up.

He intended to make a movie about the character and made the short animated film, Rupert and the Frog Song in 1984, which accompanied his film Give My Regards to Broad Street. Rupert also appeared in his video for We All Stand Together which was a chart hit that year.

On TV, he has had a number of reincarnations. The BBC series which ran from 1985 to 1988 was narrated by Ray Brooks, who is said to have not enjoyed voicing him in rhyme and drank to get through the show. Despite this, he spent five years narrating Rupert in the 36 episodes.

Today, the character still evokes memories for many. The Followers of Rupert Bear, Official Rupert Bear Society, devotes itself to the original character, and it is believed that a far more modern cartoon, Family Guy, named Stewie Griffin's teddy bear Rupert after him.

There was, for many years, a Rupert Bear shop in Canterbury, though the displays have since moved to the Beaney in the High Street, which had been due to mark his centenary this weekend with the launch of a new exhibition.

As a result of the second national lockdown, it has been postponed until afterwards, and is planned to run into the spring of 2021, but celebrations still went ahead online.

The museum's social channels marked the occasion, using #100YearsOfRupert, and there was a competition to design a Rupert Birthday Card.

Find out more on The Beaney's Facebook, and thebeaney.co.uk

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