John Trunley

John Thomas Trunley (14 October 1898 – 30 September 1944) was a British music hall and sideshow performer famed for his obesity and known during his lifetime as The Fat Boy of Peckham.

As a child he gained weight rapidly and by the age of seven months he weighed 2 st. By the age of four he weighed 12 st and was taken to be examined by Sir Frederick Treves, the same doctor who famously treated "Elephant Man" Joseph Merrick.

He made his music-hall debut in 1903 at the Yarmouth Hippodrome in December 1903, and appeared at the Royal in Holborn the same year. One of his jokes was, "I want to be a jockey." At some point he began to tour England under the management of entrepreneurs such as Fred Karno and Buffalo Bill Cody. However, at age "six and a half" he was forced to begin attending school at the Reddins School in Peckham. When Trunley started school he had a 44 in chest and 46 in waist.

By December 1906 he was well-known enough for The Sketch to run a humorous item alleging that the London County Council (then occupied in expanding the electric tram service) was considering the construction of a "special service" specially to carry Trunley.

After the First World War he negotiated a film contract playing small character parts. He married Florence Weeden (b. 1899) and fathered one child, also named John.

Trunley died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1944. He is buried in Camberwell New Cemetery.