Wellington

Wellington was a British Womble scientist and academic who served many world leaders from John C. Star to Adolf Hitler as Chief Scientist and for a short time served as world leader himself.

Wellington was born in 1958 in the Wimbledon Burrow, a womble burrow located in Wimbledon Common, Municipal Borough of Wimbledon, Surrey. At the time of his birth, the leader of Wimbledon Burrow was Great Uncle Bulgaria and the burrow contained around 250 wombles, many of whom were juveniles. When Wellington was 2 years old, he entered the Womblegarten, which was led by Miss Adelaide, a martinet who believed in strict discipline and total obedience from her pupils. He did very well in the Womblegarten and was noted as being the most intelligent womble in the history of the Wimbledon Burrow. He always performed extraordinary well in his tests and frequently requested more work and books to read, so much so was his intelligence that by the time of his 4th birthday, Miss Adelaide admitted that he had far surpassed her intellectually. Despite his intelligence, Wellington lacked nearly any practical skills and was extremely absent minded and prone to becoming lost if alone. When Wellington was still in the Womblegarten, he began inventing various machines and gadgets, which were far more complex than anything else made by any other Womble his age. He later claimed that he invented the teleportation machine aged 3 in 1961 and the time travel machine aged 4 in 1962, though these machines did not come into use until several decades later.

At age 11 in 1969, Wellington left the Womblegarten and became a litter picker, working with his fellow young wombles and friends, Orinoco, Tomsk and Bungo to tidy up sections of Wimbledon Common. He was skilled at litter picking and often collected items he would later use in his inventions and occasionally invented contraptions whilst tidying Wimbledon Common. Due to his absent mindlessness, he was prone to becoming disoriented whilst outside and would frequently become lost, therefore Great Uncle Bulgaria tasked Orinoco, Tomsk and Bungo with observing Wellington and ensuring he returned back to the burrow after his shift ended. Wellington worked particularly well with Tomsk, as demonstrated in one incident in the early 1970s when he and Tomsk were searching for a location to build a new womble burrow and decided to explore the gardens of Buckingham Palace, whilst digging underneath the boundary between the public park and the private gardens, they were approached by a London Metropolitan Police Officer who inquired as to the purpose of the digging. Though Tomsk was unsure of how to answer, Wellington claimed they were authorised workers from Windsor Castle and pointed to a lantern marked “WBC” to collaborate his claim. He claimed that “WBC” stood for Windsor, Berkshire, Castle, when in reality it stood for Wimbledon Borough Council. Despite his claim being untrue, the police officer believed him and did not investigate the matter further. Despite successfully entering the gardens and being able to continue their exploration with no interference, Wellington and Tomsk eventually decided that the Buckingham Palace Gardens were not suitable for Womble habitation and left without issue or discovery. After, the Buckingham Palace incident, Wellington, Tomsk and other wombles often reminisced about the events of that day and frequently mentioned the perceived profound differences between Wellington and Tomsk as well as their propensity to work well together.

In 1974, Wellington disappeared from the Wimbledon Burrow after he entered a television van marked “WTV”. On the day of his disappearance, he had been acting strangely and had not been focused on external events as he was considering a solution to the 1974 Wimbledon Womble Shortages. Due to his strange behaviour, Tomsk said to Orinoco that he believed Wellington would become as quiet and insular as Cousin Botany, if he didn’t alter his behaviour, he also stated that Wellington was already beginning to resemble him. Orinoco responded by instructing Tomsk not to suggest such an idea as he did not want to consider the possibility that Wellington could become as isolated as Cousin Botany who he believed Cousin Botany was a “very strange” womble.

Whilst Wellington was walking away from Bungo and Orinoco, several drops of chilled dandelion juice, which had been flung from the Wimbledon Burrow Trolley, landed on him, which he licked from the back of his paw as he considered Great Uncle Bulgaria’s speech which he had recently listened to. Whilst considering the speech, he repeated the phrase “The Wombles to the rescue” which inspired him to look for a solution to the 1974 Womble Food Shortages. He decided that an effective solution would require him to invent a suitable contraption and began to consider what he would invent as he walked across Wimbledon Common. Due to his focus on his potential inventions, he did not attempt to obscure himself from humans as was common practice for Wimbledon wombles at the time and instead walked towards a black television van marked “WTV”. As he was curious to what the van contained he entered it as he believed its passengers would not return for some time, however one of the men returned before Wellington could exit and for the next few hours one passenger was always in the van. Despite his inability to leave, he found his time in the van interesting and enjoyed listening to the documentary filmmakers discuss the wildlife on Wimbledon Common which they were filming for an upcoming documentary. Wellington was surprised that the filmmakers were seemingly unaware of many of the animals who resided on Wimbledon Common, despite them studying the local wildlife for their documentary and he wished to inform them of several residents including Old Badger, wild cats and foxes but he then decided against interacting with the filmmakers.

Wellington was eventually able to escape from the television van after his friend and fellow womble, Shansi had accidentally attracted the attention of the documentary filmmakers by dislodging their microphone from a tree she had collided with. They both exited the van to investigate what had happened and to reposition their microphone and were about to discover Shansi when Wellington imitated the vocalisations of a wolf to prevent Shansi from being discovered. His vocalisations had the desired effect as the filmmakers ignored Shansi and instead attempted to reposition their microphone as they believed that finding a wolf on Wimbledon Common would be the most notable event to take place in the local area that year. Wellington then escorted Shansi away from the filmmakers and explained the situation to her, as he did so, he felt important and powerful and enjoyed his perceived power over Shansi. He informed her that he had spent several hours in the television van, which shocked Shansi as she believed he had been taken prisoner. Wellington clarified that he had not been taken prisoner and instead had stayed in the television van to avoid being seen. As Wellington was speaking, Shansi interrupted him by shouting “The wolf”. Wellington reacted to this interruption by loudly laughing, which surprised Shansi as she did not consider wolves to be humorous, Wellington then explained that there was not a wolf on Wimbledon Common and it was him who imitated the vocalisations of a wolf to prevent Shansi from being discovered by the filmmakers. He then offered to imitate the vocalisations again, an offer which Shansi politely rejected whilst thanking him for preventing her from being seen. Wellington then thanked Shansi for assisting him escape from the television van and told her that they should return to the Wimbledon Common Burrow. Shansi replied that she did not feel she could return to the burrow as she had not picked up any litter and did not want to fail at her litter-picking job. Wellington then suggested that she collected the rubbish which the documentary filmmakers left behind, which she did. Shansi collected two large bags full of litter and was praised by Alderney and Botany for her hard work. Alderney thought that Shansi would be tired after the collection of the litter, so offered her a double daisy ice cream and a spoonful of clover cream.