Small inaccuracy on a very big man

WITH regard to the Western Mail article about the capital’s truths and myths (July 14): Number 13, Cardiff had a giant. Truth factor: False.

In fact, there was a real Cardiff giant – George Auger, born near the Great Western Railway Station in Cardiff, where his parents had a business in nearby St Mary Street.

George’s family moved to America when he was a boy. He grew to 8ft 4in.

In 1903 he joined the famed Barnum & Bailey Circus and was billed as “The Cardiff Giant.’’ It was his great ambition to play in his hometown at the Cardiff Empire Theatre in Queen Street.

When he retired he devoted his time to writing short stories and sketches. Sadly, he died of digestive problems in New York on Thanksgiving Day in 1922, without appearing in Cardiff.

As for number 10, “Death junction”, well, that area of land between Crwys Road, City Road and Albany Road, Cardiff, was known as The Gallows Field. On the Crwys Road side of the wall of the National Westminster Bank can be seen a plaque which reads: “On this site on the 22nd July,1679, Father Phillip Evans and Father John Lloyd were executed for exercising their priestly duties. Declared Saints and Martyrs by Pope Paul V1 on the 25th October,1970.”

More of this story can be found in my book Cardiff Remembered (The History Press), along with some of the other subjects mentioned in the article, such as Buffalo Bill’s three visits to Cardiff and Victoria Park’s Billy the Seal.

Brian Lee Cardiff