Grenadier Guardsman Extraordinaire. ( the long and the short of it ) Back in the 1990s while looking into family history I thought I would track down my Uncle John Moss (b.1887 - .d. 1913, he was the one who died after a football game at 26 years of age suffering an embolism. As kids we were told of this uncle and given the information that he was in the Grenadier Guards and was 6ft 9ins (203.5cm) in height. Well that fact alone had me really interested to find out more about him. So I started with a letter to the major in charge of records at the Grenadiers Barracks in Birdcage walk next Buckingham Palace. This proved fruitful as the major replied that when I came to the UK to come to the barracks and he would give me a copy of this uncles record, I had already told him I would be coming from Australia in a couple of months time. My brother David who lives in London took me to the barracks some days after I arrived and we proceeded to acquire the records from the major mentioned above. On the way back to my brothers place via the tube train I opened the records and perused them with great interest. I started laughing out loud as I was reading and my brother said What are you laughing at I replied your are not going to believe this our 6ft 9in Uncle John was in actual fact 5ft 7.1/2 ins tall. What a let down after all these years of believing we had this giant in the family when really he was actually just above dwarf height. He came out of the army in 1905. Through no fault of Uncle John this story had grown including his height, even today I still chuckle when I think about it. ...........................................Photo 1912 of John Moss
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 13:39:45 +0000
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