Jane Bunford

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Jane "Ginny" Bunford (26 July 1895-1 April 1922) is the tallest person ever recorded in British medical history. She was the tallest woman in the world during her lifetime, and she still may hold two further records - that she was twice the tallest person in the world, - between 1916 and 1919, and between 20 May 1921 and 1 April 1922.^[1] She may also have had the longest hair in Britain during her lifetime. Jane Bunford is also one of the most mysterious giants to have lived during the 20th Century.

1 Introduction
2 Life changing accident in 1906
3 School
4 Life as a giantess
- 4.1 Death
5 Discovery in 1971
6 Memories of Bunford
7 A second funeral
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Introduction

Bunford's parents were John Bunford (1856-1916) and Jane Bunford (1857-1913) of Bartley Green, Northfield, Birmingham, UK. Her father was a metal caster. She was the youngest of seven children but the sixth to survive, her elder sister Elizabeth dying in 1892 at the age of three months. Known as "Ginny", Bunford enjoyed good health for the first 11 years of her life. While she was fairly tall for her age, her growth rate was not exceptional.

[edit] Life changing accident in 1906

In June 1906, she was 5 ft (1.52 m) tall but later in the year she fractured her skull after falling from her bicycle.^{[citation needed]} Sixty-five years later, in 1971, a Guinness Book of Records photo of Bunford's skeleton appeared to show a line on the right hand side of her skull. Although Bunford couldn't have known it at the time, the injury permanently damaged her pituitary gland,^{[citation needed]} releasing an excess of growth hormone which sent her growth patterns out of control. It was not until nine years after her accident that scientists determined that the pituitary gland is responsible for producing growth hormones in humans, and no treatment was available in her lifetime. According to her death certificate, she died of hyperpituitarism and gigantism.^[2]

[edit] School

Bunford attended St. Michael's elementary school in Bartley Green, where she displayed a talent for embroidery, but after the accident, she was teased by other pupils because of her abnormal growth and height. Also, the desks and chairs became too uncomfortable for her to sit at. As a result she left school before her thirteenth birthday on 26 July 1908. That day she was measured, in her bare feet, at 6 ft 6 in tall or 1.98 m.^[3] On her 21st birthday she was measured at 7 ft 10 in (2.39 m) tall, her peak standing height.

[edit] Life as a giantess

Bunford rejected several opportunities to benefit financially from her size and appearance. She had auburn hair, which she grew until it was 8 ft 1 in long. She wore it in two plaits, down to her ankles according to the 1972 edition of the Guinness Book of Records. When loose it fell around her like a cloak reaching the ground. No one has photographs of her when alive so it is not known if she had very long hair before her accident. She refused an offer to purchase her hair for a small fortune^{[citation needed]} and also rejected offers to appear in various shows for what were large sums of money at the time. She worked at a Cadburys chocolate factory for a time after leaving school.

In her final years she became a recluse as her spine developed severe curvature and became unable to support her body's great size. This may have also developed because she had to stoop and bend down often when passing through doors. This condition is often seen in very tall people as the spine is unable to support their rapid growth rates. It occurred in both Eddie Carmel and John F. Carroll, who like Jane Bunford, were not born exceptionally tall. Their abnormal growth started at the ages of 15 and 16 respectively.

Bunford eventually could not stand fully erect, and her final measurement was 2.31 m (7 ft 7 in), estimated at 2.41 m (7 ft 11 in) had she not had developed the curvature.^[4]

[edit] Death

In March 1922, Bunford's doctor informed the medical school of Birmingham University that she did not have long to live, and she died at her home at 284 Jiggins Lane, Bartley Green on 1 April 1922.

Jane Bunford's funeral was held at St Michaels Church, Bartley Green, on 5 April 1922. According to undertaker's records published in General Practitioner, her coffin was 8 ft 4 in long and 2 ft across. The coffin, which was locked in the church overnight on 4/5 April, was probably the longest ever used for a UK funeral.

Four schoolboys who carried her coffin from the church to the graveyard remarked later that it felt strangely light for someone of Jane's size^{[citation needed]} but they thought no more about it and didn't inquire why. If they had, the later outrage of the whereabouts of Bunford's skeleton may have been avoided. However if Bunford had been buried on 5 April 1922, then she probably would never have been listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

[edit] Discovery in 1971

Nothing was reported or written about Jane Bunford in the next 49 years, and outside family and friends, she appeared to have been forgotten. That changed in 1971 when the Guinness Book of Records heard about the skeleton of a giantess on display within Birmingham University.

The October 1971 edition the Guinness Book of Records published a photograph of Bunford's skeleton. Stating that the identity of it "remains a 50-year-old secret",^[5]the book nethertheless said it belonged to an unidentified giantess who "died in Northfield, Birmingham, England in 1921 aged c. 24 years", and noted that the "Skeleton has a mounted height of 7 feet 4 inches but she had a severe curvature indicating a height of c. 7 feet 9 inches when alive.^[6] A note on page 304 said "The most recent research into the identity of the Northfield giantess indicates that she died in 1922".^[7].

Birmingham University initially declined to identify who the skeleton belonged to, but interest had now been stirred, and Bunford was the only giantess living in the Birmingham area who fitted the description, and who died around that time. The skeleton's identity was revealed to be that of Jane Bunford, and the "50-year-old secret" was uncovered. The story was featured on ATV towards the end of 1971 and in a Daily Mirror article on 3 February 1972, with a headline stating "Body snatch mystery of Giant Jane".^[8] The Guinness Book of Records obtained Jane's death certificate on 10 February 1972.

Due to the publicity, the university finally admitted the skeleton was Bunford's, but declined to state how it was obtained. According to a February 1972 General Practitioner article, the university refused to allow any more photographs to be taken. Further information was withheld and questions from journalists not permitted, at the request of the head of the Bunford family, according to the university.

Some of Bunford's relatives were angry that her skeleton had been removed without their consent or knowledge. In the General Practitioner article, they denied that they had sold or had gave her body to medical science. It is not known whether her siblings were aware of the removal when she died or if they gave permission for the medical school to remove it. Some of them were dead by the time the controversy arose over her skeleton's whereabouts.

In October 1972, the Guinness Book of Records listed Jane Bunford as being Britain's tallest recorded woman. For several years she was named as the tallest female recorded in medical history, and she would be listed in that publication for the next 30 years. A copy of her death certificate appeared at the foot of page 11 in the 1972 publication.^[9]

Measurements of Bunford's skeleton obtained in 1971 -- Chin to top of head, 10.75 in (27.31 cm). Arm span = 8 ft 1.25 in (247.02 cm). Length from top of head to waist, 3 ft 0.75 in (93.35 cm). Length from top of head to crotch, 3 ft 11 in (119.38 cm). Wrist to tip of middle-finger, 10.5 in (26.67 cm). Length from waist to heel, 4 ft 10.25 in (147.96 cm). Heel to tip of big toe, 13 inches (33.02 cm).^[10]^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Memories of Bunford

When interviewed in January 1972, elderly residents of Bartley Green remembered Jane Bunford well. They recalled a woman with a deep voice but a gentle nature^{[citation needed]}. Everyone who knew her consistently remarked on her shyness. It is not known if this arose because she was self-conscious and embarrassed about her size, or whether it was a personality trait she already had before her extraordinary growth began.

She often baby-sat young children in the area, as a favour for neighbours, and several people in their old age recalled her doing this along with seeing her clean the upstairs windows of her cottage while standing on the pavement, such was her reach.^[11] Bunford had a close friend named Emma, who was a dwarf and lived nearby. When the two walked side by side, the huge difference in stature must have been a strange sight.

[edit] A second funeral

Despite the controversy over the 1971 discovery, Bunford's skeleton continued to be displayed until 2005, when her family managed to regain it from the university.After 83 years, she was finally buried in her family plot. No headstone marks Bunford's grave to this day, but as the 20th Century drew to a close, plans arose for a plaque to be erected in Bartley Green to commemorate her life.^[12] Her cousin opposed the erection of the plaque^[13] whereas others wanted it to be as tall as Bunford was when she was alive. Neither party got their way. A seven-foot plaque in commemoration of Jane "Ginny" Bunford was placed on the wall of Bartley Green Local Library on 10 April 2000, almost exactly 78 years to the day after her death.^[14] However the wall was 7ft 11in (2.41cm) high, as tall as Jane was.