15. THE IRISH TOM THUMB
Robert David Jones was born in Lisburn, Ireland, in 1903, the son of the painter John Jones and his wife Lizzie. He was of normal size and weight at birth, but failed to develop normally: he would grow to be just 24 inches (61cm) tall. He had at least four normal siblings: brother John and sisters Annie, Lizzie and Sarah. Sadly, his mother died young, and his father followed her into the grave in 1921. After rudimentary schooling in Lisburn, young ‘Davy’ Jones decided to make his fortune on the stage. He signed a contract with Bostock’s Menagerie in the 1920s, being billed as ‘The Irish Tom Thumb’ and ‘Bostock’s Man in Miniature’. At least three postcards, today rather scarce, were printed to advertise him, but the show was never a success and he soon returned to Lisburn.
To earn his keep, Davy Jones had to find a job: he got hold of a pony and trap and started a business delivering firewood and coal in the area round Lisburn. Once, when a schoolboy came to tease him, Davy floored him with a well-aimed block of wood. He also assisted a local milkman on his rounds, filling the tins with pints and half-pints as well as he could. He earnt enough money to be able to marry his normal-sized wife Jean, and they soon had a son named David William. Davy’s greatest problem was his very short and bowed legs, which made locomotion difficult. In 1965, he took delivery of a Cheetah Cub engine-driven children’s car, made in fibreglass to resemble a classic Jaguar. Many people in Lisburn could remember him driving along in his tiny car, on the busy roads next to lorries and double-decker buses.
Davy was popular in Lisburn, where he had many friends. He stayed away from showbusiness after his disappointing stint at Bostock’s, although he once made an appearance as one of the dwarfs in a performance of Snow White at the Grand Opera House. He was a regular at the Smithfield House, one of the oldest pubs in town, and sometimes amused his drinking companions by taking his seat on a pint glass. Once, a friend invited him to visit his house in town, but the little fellow made a wrong turn on the stairs and went into the bedroom of a visiting maiden aunt by mistake; many years later, the friend could still remember the desperate screaming emanating from the room, announcing that the aunt had seen “the divil himself!” In spite of his dangerous driving in his little car, Davy Jones died of natural causes in 1970, leaving his wife and child well supported. His car was exhibited at the Ulster Transport Museum for a while, but has since been put in storage. Since Davy was of normal size at birth, he did not suffer from primordial dwarfism, but rather some extreme variant of chondrodystrophy, with an abnormally short trunk for this condition, and very short legs.
This is an edited extract from Jan Bondeson’s book The Lion Boy and Other Medical Curiosities
(Amberley Publishing, Stroud 2018).
TOP: ‘Davy’ Jones in civilian clothes. FAR LEFT: An unposted card featuring the Irish Tom Thumb during his brief show business career, in pseudo-military attire. LEFT: Another card, with a tall person added.