[2] His fame grew to international proportions during World War II and after his death he remained an important mascot for the city of Bristol.

His profile was further increased during World War II when visiting soldiers took images and stories of Alfred back to their home countries with articles about him appearing in the US and Australian press.

Alfred's form was stolen from the museum in 1956 and was missing for a weekend before he was discovered and returned, a mystery that remained unsolved until the death of one of the perpetrators in 2010.

When these arrived in Bristol, Stutchbury sent them to Owen who published a paper, on the specimens proposing to call the species Troglodytes Savagei after Thomas Savage.

[6] Alfred was initially found by an Expedition from the American Museum of Natural History, New York and Columbia University in 1928 in what was then Belgian Congo.

The expedition members were told that a pair of gorillas had been shot for ‘raiding’ a farmer's field for food, afterwards a baby was discovered and suckled by a local woman.

[7] The baby gorilla was later sold to a Greek merchant and taken to the town of Mbalmayo in modern-day Cameroon, where the expedition encountered him playing in the streets.

His increasing strength had become a concern to his keepers; when he broke a photographer's tripod during his birthday celebrations, his walks around the zoo were curtailed.

[16] Although Alfred's habits could occasionally be perceived as offensive by some of the zoo's visitors, many of the children who saw him regularly formed a deep bond with him.

[22] This stood in contrast for the affection he reciprocated towards his early keepers Frank Guise and Bert Jones, as well as to the sparrows who visited his enclosure to pick at breadcrumbs.

Alfred, one visitor recalled, 'used to express his opinion of the human race by picking up large lumps of his droppings and hurling them accurately at the spectators in front of his cage.

Alfred was sponsored by Albert Glisten, Fellow of the Zoological Society and Chairman of Southend United Football Club.

[31] The presence of US Army troops in Bristol allowed Alfred's popularity to spread further as soldiers sent images and stories featuring the gorilla across the Atlantic.

On the one hand, he was worried about Germans appearing out of the dark but he was equally concerned that if a bomb dropped near the zoo the animals might escape from their cages.

‘Often, 17 year olds like myself exchanged our fears about what one would do if, spare the thought, in such an event the monstrous form of Alfred were to lumber forward out of the darkness’, he recalled, ‘probably run towards the enemy!’ he concluded.

The press at the time speculated that ‘his pet hate got him in the end’, linking Alfred's dislike of aeroplanes with the passage of one over the zoo shortly before his death.

A new ape house, the article declared, was not likely to appear for at least four years and the gorillas were unlikely to return, much to the disappointment of the keeper Mike Colbourne.

One visitor, for example, encountered the gorilla unexpectedly when visiting her granddaughter at Bristol University more than forty years after Alfred's demise.

[38] Alfred was moved in 1988 to the World Wildlife gallery on the museum's first floor where his exhibit was now positioned alongside a number of different specimens and displays.

These moves allowed Alfred's form to become a part of a larger narrative on biology and conservation whilst retaining his status as a celebrated local mascot and historical object.

After three days he was found and returned to his case although the full story surrounding the theft took more than fifty years to come to light.

In 1993 people were asked to send in their memories about Alfred as part of a competition to win four free tickets to Bristol Zoo.

This was part of the celebrations held to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Alfred's death which also included a series of talks and tours at the museum.

Children drew him birthday cards showing the gorilla's continuing public appeal as part of the history of Bristol and as a curiosity for younger visitors to the museum.

Alfred remains a prominent figure in the museum's collection appearing regularly in guides, trails and children's events.

[39] Alfred's life and status are also often still used to promote discussion regarding the history and evolution of conservation techniques and the practice of keeping primates in captivity.