At around eight feet tall, Chang Woo Gow was Bournemouth’s tallest man. Although born in China in 1841, he moved to Bournemouth in 1890 for health reasons. Here, he opened a tea shop and an Oriental Bazaar which sold imported Chinese goods. He made his home in Southcote Road, Bournemouth. To ensure his privacy, he built a ten feet high wall around the garden. A bed nine feet long and six feet wide was specially constructed for him. Far from overweight, nevertheless he still weighed 23 stone. On one occasion, a horse drawn carriage collapsed under his weight. It is said he travelled around Bournemouth in a rickshaw.
Chang Woo Gow was a highly educated man who reputedly could speak ten languages. Most difficult language for him was English. He had travelled the world as ‘Chang the Chinese giant’ but his real name was Zhan Shi Chai. Under his stage name, he made circus and variety show appearances. He first appeared in London at the Egyptian Halls in 1865 with his wife, known as the ‘Golden Lilly’. He would often be photographed alongside a Chinese dwarf called Chung Mow. Some reckon that ‘Golden Lilly’ was not his wife but a Chinese actress paid to play the part.
He claimed to have met Queen Victoria, the Czar of Russia and the Emperor of Austria. His first ‘wife’ died in 1871 in Australia. The following year he married Catherine Santley, a Liverpool girl he had met in Australia. They had two children.
He died in 1893 and was buried in a coffin which was eight and a half feet long. Due to concerns about grave robbers, he was buried in an unmarked grave in Wimborne Cemetery. A Bournemouth friend said:He ‘passed away among strangers in a foreign land, one of the noblest and gentlest of men.’
Chang Woo Gow claimed to have a sister in China even taller than him.
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