CARDIFFREMEMBERED Stories of cruel city streets in ex-police officer’s new book

FORMER police officer John F Wake will be launching his new book Cardiff: Those Cruel And Savage Streets in the Welsh capital next week..

A follow-up to his popular The Cruel Streets Revisited and Tiger Bay Died Too, it will contain stories about Mad Jack Matthews, Cardiff’s wildest publican, the amazing Constable Kingdom, the Llanrumney Hall murder and many other investigations, as well as the differences in policing over the years in his beloved Cardiff.

Admission to the book launch, at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre, is free and John will be giving a talk about the many subjects he covers in his well-illustrated book.

And while you are in Cardiff Bay, pay a visit to the Pierhead Building to see the Chronicle Project Exhibition.

The project is a two-year community scheme run by volunteers from Cardiff whose aim has been to gather stories about volunteering in Cardiff and making those stories available to the general public.

The work has included digitising historical material, collecting oral history, making videos and hosting a number of events and walks.

A booklet produced by the Chronicle Project informs us that the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay was created in 1868 so that Norwegian seafarers would have a place of worship.

It follows a Lutheran style, which is very different from the traditional English church.

As a child, Cardiff-born author Roald Dahl visited the church every week.

And in 2013 the church was the venue for the Mini Music Fest organised by the Voluntary Community Service, with the event designed to celebrate the work of volunteers in the city and not only recognise the work of individual volunteers but also voluntary organisations.

Meanwhile, when I wrote in my column on September 22 that George Auger the Cardiff giant never fulfilled his ambition of appearing at Cardiff’s Empire Theatre in Queen Street I was wrong.

I have since come across a report in the Western Mail dated November 10, 1908, under the heading “Tallest Man In The World” and sub-headed “Giant’s Return To His Native Cardiff”, which reads:

“George Auger, the tallest man in the world, is appearing this week at Cardiff Empire, and interest is quickened by the fact that he is a native of the city.

“Mr Auger has spent many years in America.

“He is an actor of repute, as well as the premier giant, and there is every prospect that at the Empire he will, as in America, be lionised in his reproduction of a page from Gulliver’s Travels, disclosing Jack The Giant Killer in a clever and humorous playlet, written and arranged by himself.”

Accompanied by a photograph of Auger with his close friend Ernest Rommell, one of the most famous Lilliputians of his time, the Western Mail reporter wrote that, unlike some “giants”, Auger had not developed obesity, and that he talked with ease on a vast variety of topics and that he had