Who was the tallest?

[eltoro1960]

Jack mentioned Lt Hodge, I raked the files and here he is with a somewhat 'vertically challenged' fellow officer.

[Terry Carter]

I know its Hard to believe.... But I have just read an account of a Great War RAMC man who was only 3ft 8inches tall... He was Australian who gained permission to enlist but was told he would not go on active service. He got discharged and made his way to England to join the RAMC. Frank Wittman was his name.

Terry

[Auimfo]

That would be 117440 A/Cpl Frank Clifford Wittman, RAMC.

There is a file on him in the Australian National Archives but it only discusses his return to Australia in 1919-20 as being "No longer physically fit for war service". Unfortunately there's no description of him in this file at all.

Also, there's no attestation forms to say he initially joined up with the AIF but the file does indicate he was a British Army reservist (presumably before the war).

Cheers,

Tim L.

[Auimfo]

And then there was

2349 Gunner Ernest KNICKEL

5th Light Horse Regiment

6'10" tall.

Never joined his regiment from the reinforcements and died in England during 1917 of Bright's Disease.

Cheers,

Tim L.

[Terry Carter]

Hi Tim L.

The information I found about 3ft 8 inch F C Wittman was in an excellent book I bought the weekend whilst I was on the Somme. "Just Soldiers" 'Stories of ordinary Australians doing extraordinary things in time of war' by Darryl Kelly a serving W.O.1 in the Australian Artillery and published by the Anzac Day Commemoration Committee 2004.

Terry

Below: Photo taken from book (guess which one is Wittman !)

[NigelS]

Here's another tall one; possibly not the tallest but nevertheless tall: Private Georgie Chapman ("The Tallest Terrier") given as 6'9 (+1/4" !) in his socks, see page 17 of Leonard Smith's Diary at http://tinyurl.com/6jl4k7

NigelS

[bantamforgot]

Herewith Henry with a comparison, courtesy of Sidney Allinson

[T8HANTS]

What about half pint Huns?

[unitedsound]

Great pics!!!

David

[ronmarsden]

Lieut Lindsay Fitzgerald Hay Black Watch,at six foot eleven and a half inches said to be the tallest man in the British army.

His nickname was the lampost.

Ron.

[J Banning]

Lieutenant R.C. Lodge of 16 Royal Scots stood 6 feet, 8 and a half inches in his stocking soles, and was reputed (as late as 1917) to be the tallest soldier in the Army - Old or New.

There's an apochryphal tale about the Germans taking a photo of his head sticking up over the parapet during an early trench tour near La Boisselle. While there was undoubtedly some measure of mutual banter across the Sausage/Mash divide, I'm inclined to think it more likely that they would have sniped him. Cuthbert was killed at Hargicourt in August '17 and may still be buried with his sergeant in the trench in which they fell.

Lodge and his great height is mentioned in Richard van Emden's new book, The Soldier's War. On Page 263 Major Bertram Brewin notes:

"Lodge, a son of the Edinburgh professor, was a captain, an awfully good lad, some 6ft 5, and he was hopeless in the line owing to his height. He told me that he had given up trying to take cover as the pain he suffered from so much stooping was far worse than being hit, so he used to stalk around at his full height, showing nearly to his waist above the parapet. I really think the Bosch took him for a dummy – the gifted R. Academicians had sculpted and painted busts of men stuck on poles, and one used to carry them round the line to encourage the Bosch to snipe at them, (they really were most natural), and as the Bosch was pretty cunning he refused to be drawn. Anyway Lodge got a free and unsurpassed view of no man’s land and the Bosch lines, and was in great request by Stephenson on any question concerning them. The irony of fate was that he was killed in a dug-out above Roisel, near Peronne by a direct hit from a shell on the dug-out entrance. He was a very fine lad."

Jeremy

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

#33 & #35 - How amusing!

Both those tall guys are John Cleese (6'5" according to the Wiki font of all truth pedia)