STRONG MAN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 289, 1 August 1932, Page 8

STRONG MAN

ELDERLY WRECKER INSENSIBLE TO ELECTRIC SHOCKS. STILL WORKS AT 77. A remarkable man who earns his living as a wrecker is Mr. Jabez Bancroft, of Keighley, Yorkshire. He is 77, but he still enjoys the demolishing of old property, factory chimneys, and the like. Mr. Bancroft lifbad the tram lines, between Keighley and Otley. Not twelve months ago he removed a twoton safe from the Town Hall at Keighley, and less than two years ago, when h'e was 75, he took down a water tank from the summit of an 80ft. tower. More surprising than that, however, Mr. Bancroft is peculiarly insensitive to electric shocks. A "nonconductor" his son called him. He can put his hands on the plugs of big motor-lorries and stop the engines. "Yes," he smiled, " and I'll tell you what else I can do. I can fill my pipe, stick a nail in the tobaeco, hold the pipe with one hand, with the index finger, say, a quarter of an inch from the nail top, take hold of an electric main cable with the other hand, and light my pipe with the sparks that flow from the finger." "How did you diseover your insensibility to shocks?" Mr. Bancroft was reeently asked. "Years ago," the veteran said, "when those 'electric shock machines with a couple of brass knobs were |>opular. They had no effect on me, and I became so well known that the showmen used to say, 'Oh, thee get away, tha's no use.' " "In my father's younger days," said his son, " he had tremendous strength." Mr Bancroft has still a reputation in the district, and whenever there is any rough heavy work to be done, he is the man they send for round Shipley, Keighley and Bradford. He started work at seven years of age as a wood turner, but has been in business on his own account as a wrecker for fifty years. 'This wonderful old man never wears a coat, and though he may get

wet through going to his job, he will get on with whatever he is doing and let his clothes dry on him. "And I have never had rheumatism," he ' added. Mrs. Bancroft is also 77. She sews i and reads without the aid of glasses does all her own housework and also 4 the cooking.