8FT. 2IN. CANADIAN.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 5 September 1917, Page 2

BFT. 2IN. CANADIAN.

A giant who holds the British height record for the last 120 years is at present a patient in the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic, Queen Square W.C., where he has been accommodated in a bed improvised from two ordinary bedsteads. His name is Frederidk iKempSter, he *s) (Bft. 2in.> in height and 25 years old, and he is suffering from Giant’s Disease, known officially as acromegale, or inaction of the nerve centre which controls growth. His size in bobts is about 20. ster is a Canadian, who was taken to the colonies as a baby. But quite a normal baby, for the nerve responsible for the trouble did not cease work until Kempster was 12 years old, when he began to shoot rapidly beyond his brothers, and then beyond his father and mother, who are all of normal sizeBe told a Daily Chronicle representative that three of his brothers are serving with the Canadian contingent. In a voice which is descibcd as being “like a sweet-toned ’cello played into a megaphone,” Kempster told how he had tried to join the army in England, where he had come from Canada for treatment of one of his legs, which was damaged during his work in a lumber camp. But, with a large sigh, he 'said there was “nothing doing,” and finally he became the star exhibit of a show in Tottenham Court Road. In the next bed to Kempster is a small boy who has never ceased to be astonished since the giant arrived. His admiration for the feat with which Kempster, celebrated his entry is especially great. Seeing a pile of bread and butter, which he took to be his own share, the giant ate the lot. It was not till later that he learned he had eaten the whole ward’s war-time breakfast allowance.