The tallest soldier in the British Army?

[MikeyH]

An interesting item on BBC TV Midlands News this evening. Twenty years ago a couple from California bought a photo portrait of a British Soldier from an antiques shop in Stratford-upon-Avon.  The image was in a large copper or brass sheathed frame, with  regimental badges attached, which I was unable to identify in the very brief sequence. Some years later they removed the photo from the frame and found a number of newspaper cuttings and a postcard behind it  which enabled them to identify the subject as William Furse, who at 6ft 5in was apparently the tallest soldier in the British Army.   They then did some research and found that Furse had no remaining descendants, but hailed from Moseley in Birmingham, the couple have now presented the photo and their subsequent findings to the Moseley Historical Society.  Can anyone add anything?

 

Mike.

 

 

[ss002d6252]

This man was 6' 9" - https://1914centenary.com/2014/06/21/devon-village-remembers-tallest-british-soldier-of-ww1/

 

Craig

[Andrew Upton]

4 hours ago, MikeyH said:

...which enabled them to identify the subject as William Furse, who at 6ft 5in was apparently the tallest soldier in the British Army...

 

Only 6 ft 5 in?

 

[Ian Riley]

I think that Colin Barber who served with the Liverpool Scottish towards the end of WW1 and then as a regular officer with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (later Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Barber) might come in at slightly more than 6 foot 5 inches (although putting him beside Montgomery and Horrocks might be cheating as a way to emphasise his height - he's the one on the right, by the way). The sleeve of his mess kit jacket would serve as a trouser leg for many shorter mortals. Not sure of the source for this photo - apparently not IWM. 6 foot 8 or 9 inches seems to be the recollection of many, perhaps a tad more (6 ft 9 ins according to a well known internet source). He was known universally as 'Tiny' Barber. The photo is presumably at the time he was commanding 15th (Scottish) Division

 

[toofatfortakeoff]

They all seem to be near to laughing in the photo, it's like something out of a Spike Milligan book.

I say, you up there ..