Nationality British Name John Trunley Years active 1903 – 1927 | Occupation Music hall performer Died September 30, 1944 | |
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Known for Proclaimed the heaviest person in Britain in 1915 | ||
Other names The Fat Boy of Peckham | ||
John Thomas Trunley (14 October 1898 – 30 September 1944) was a British music hall and sideshow performer famed for his obesity and known during his lifetime as The Fat Boy of Peckham. As a child he gained weight rapidly and by the age of seven months he weighed 2 stone (28 lb; 13 kg). By the age of four he weighed 12 stone (170 lb; 76 kg) and was taken to be examined by the eminent doctor, Sir Frederick Treves. When he started school at six he had a 44-inch (1,100 mm) chest and 46-inch (1,200 mm) waist. He achieved national prominence when Lord Northcliffe ran a critical story about London County Council’s decision to extend an existing tramway 400 yards (370 m) because Trunley could no longer walk to Reddins School. Shortly after this he began to tour England under the management of entrepreneurs such as Fred Karno. Trunley appeared on the music halls informing the audience "I want to be a jockey". After the First World War he negotiated a film contract playing small character parts. He married and had children, before dying of pulmonary TB in 1944. He is buried in Camberwell New Cemetery.
