BOY GIANT

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 May 1937, Page 13

BOY GIANT

FINDS LIFE A PROBLEM Life is a problem when you are 6ft Sin tall and only thirteen years of age. i Sidney Wellbrook thinks so. .He goes to Robert Browning L.C.C. School at Walworth, and lives two miles away at tiie Dog Kennel Hill Estate,,East Dulwich. He goes all that way to school because he is shy. It took him a long time to become used to the embarrassing remarks of the boys at Robert Browning School, and when his family moved to East Dulwich he decided to go to Walworth and back rather than repeat his “introduction” ordeal. Here are some of Sidney’s problems — The smaller boys all like Sidney because he can easily settle a dispute for them. Sidney does not play with the others. “I should feel rather out of it,” he said to a “Sunday Express” representative, “so I spend playtime doing part of my school work.” He had to be given an official pass to convince tramcar conductors that he is telling the truth when he asks for a half-fare. While his class-mates sit in pairs, Sidney had to have a desk made for him. This is placed at the back of the class so that he will not obstruct the blackboard for the other boys. “ I like being tall when I’m with older people, but sometimes 1 wish I was shorter when I'm at school. “I am head and shoulders taller than my teacher. I have only been caned once. When that happened they brought in a teacher taller than me to do it.” Sidney’s general physique has kept pace with his height. He is broad and strongly built. He would like to take up boxing, but he cannot as it is impossible to class him according to weight and age. He has already found girls a problem.

“Girls of my own age are far too small to go out with,” he confided, ‘ while girls of the right, size are much too old. So I just don’t go out with any.”

Sidney's ambition? Oh, yes, he wants to be a policeman, like his grandfather. He is still growing.