How 7-foot-11 former tallest woman’s body went missing for half a century
At 2.41 metres (7 ft 11 in), Jane Bunford (1895–1922) was the tallest woman in the world during her lifetime, a few years of which she also spent as the tallest living person overall.
She retained the title of tallest woman ever for 60 years following her death (until it was taken by China’s Zeng Jinlian) and she remains the tallest British person to have ever existed.
Jane was buried in a long, custom-made coffin at a funeral attended by family and friends.
However, 50 years later, her skeleton was found on display inside a nearby university museum, and no one seemed to know how it got there.
Becoming Britain’s tallest person ever
Born in Bartley Green, Birmingham, Jane enjoyed a relatively normal early childhood until the age of 11, when she fractured her skull after falling off her bike.
She was taller than average for her age, but her remarkable growth spurt only began after suffering the head injury, which is presumed to have permanently damaged her pituitary gland, releasing an excess of growth hormone.
A quiet, shy child, at secondary school she enjoyed embroidery, but she soon outgrew the furniture and found it difficult to walk through doorways, and she was reportedly tormented by some of her peers.
As such, her parents decided to take her out of school before her 13th birthday – on which date she was measured to be 1.98 metres (6 ft 6 in).
Jane began working at a Cadbury’s chocolate factory for a time after leaving school, though at age 15 – at which point she’d passed the seven-foot mark – she was listed in the April 1911 census as “Jinny Bunford” with no occupation given.
She rejected several opportunities throughout her life to appear in various shows, as well as turning down a sizeable sum from a man who wanted to buy her hair.
No photos of Jane exist, but she was known to have had very long, auburn hair. She was awarded the longest hair record in the 1972 edition of our book, based on the fact that her hair – worn in two plaits – reached her ankles, indicating a length in excess of eight feet.
One of the only known depictions of Jane Bunford
On her 21st birthday in 1916, Jane was measured to be 2.39 m (7 ft 10 in), which was her peak standing height. Her record height of 2.41 m (7 ft 11 in) is an estimate adjusted for her spinal curvature, based on a measurement of 2.31 m (7 ft 7 in) taken shortly before her death.
Jane’s father passed away in late 1916, so she moved into her brother’s house at Jiggins Lane, Bartley Green, where she lived until her own death six years later.
Disliking the unwanted attention her sizeable stature brought her, Jane became a recluse in her final years, though she often babysat her neighbours’ children. She was also reportedly close friends with a dwarf named Emma who lived nearby.
Her worsening spinal curvature meant that she could not stand fully erect, adding to the discomfort caused by her various joint problems.
Jane passed away on 1 April 1922, aged 26. Hyperpituitarism and gigantism were listed as the cause on her death certificate.
Jane’s coffin, which measured 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) according to undertaker records, was locked in the local church overnight before her funeral on 5 April, however, her body wasn’t inside it when it was buried…
Jane Bunford’s stolen skeleton
No obituary or death notice was published in the local newspaper when Jane died, and almost 50 years went by without any further mention of her.
However, in the 1971 Guinness World Records book, an “unidentified acromegalic giantess who died in Northfield, Birmingham, England in 1921 aged c. 24 years” was listed as the “tallest giantess” to have existed.
“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,” the entry reads.
Accompanying the text was an image of the skeleton at the Anatomical Museum in the University of Birmingham Medical School.
A note in the stop-press section at the end of the book stated: "The most recent research into the identity of the Northfield giantess indicates that she died in 1922."
Following the book’s widespread release, the university began receiving inquiries from journalists but refused to disclose any information.
But because there weren’t any other seven-foot women who died in Birmingham during the 1920s, it didn’t take long for the skeleton’s identity to be revealed as Jane Bunford.
After the university admitted that the skeleton was indeed Jane’s, the saga was covered by the Daily Mirror in a February 1972 article headlined 'Body-snatch mystery of Giant Jane,' within which a university spokesman was quoted as saying: “We have no reason to suppose that we obtained it by any other method than a perfectly proper one.”
The university then stopped allowing any photographs to be taken and declined answering any further questions.
Interviewed on TV in 1972, an elderly woman named Mrs Booth, whose younger sister Jane used to babysit, revealed that Jane’s pallbearers were former classmates of hers, who remarked after the funeral that “Jinny wasn’t there,” as the coffin felt much lighter than they’d expected.
Mrs Booth also questioned why the church was locked as soon as Jane’s coffin was taken inside on the day before the funeral, as it had previously always been kept open to all.
It remains unknown whether Jane’s family sold her body or whether it was stolen – her parents were long dead by 1972, her sister Betsy and brother Harry both died in 1970, and her surviving relatives denied any knowledge of it.
Despite all the controversy and media attention, Jane’s skeleton remained on display at the university until 2005, when changes to the Data Protection Act meant that her relatives could claim it back.
Jane was finally put to rest after a private second funeral, where she was buried without a headstone marking her grave.
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