He was born on February 22, 1918 in Alton, Illinois (USA). He was the first of five children born to his parents, Harold and Addie Wadlow. Then they had two more boys and two more girls. Surprisingly, both his brothers and his sisters were only of normal height and weight. Robert’s own weight when he was born was nothing out of the ordinary: 3.85 kg (8 lb 8 oz). In fact, during the first two years of his life, his growth rate was normal. When he was two years old, he had to have surgery for a double hernia. It’s impossible to say if there was a connection to that, but since then, things started to change dramatically.

His growth rate increased remarkably. When she was 5 years old, she reached a height of 1.63 meters (5 feet 4 inches) and reached 6 feet when she was only 8 years old. Over the next 4 years she grew an average of 2.5 inches per year until age 12, when her height reached 2.10 meters (6 feet 10.5 inches).

In the next 3 years, its growth rate accelerated further. She grew another 24 cm (9.5 inches), so that she was 2.34 meters (7 feet 8 inches) tall when she was 15 years old. For the 2 years after that, her growth rate slowed slightly to just over 2 inches per year. When she was 17 years old, her height was 2.45 meters (8 feet 0.38 inches), but she couldn’t stop growing.

The following year, it grew another 8 cm (a little over 3 inches), but only 2 inches the following year. She was now 19 years old and her height was 2.58 meters (8 feet 5.5 inches).

In the next 2 years, his growth rate slowed to its slowest rate for quite some time, but he still grew. When her teenage years came to an end, her height reached 2.61 meters (8 feet 6.75 inches). She was 2.65 meters (8 feet 8.25 inches) tall when she was 21 years old. The last recorded measurement of her was 2.72 meters (8 feet 11.1 inches) when she was 22 years and 5 months old.

As you can imagine, she couldn’t walk around in public without attracting attention. People would inevitably look at him and crowds would gather around him. Some rather unkind people kicked or pinched his legs to make sure he wasn’t walking on stilts.

His extreme height obviously made life difficult for him. He couldn’t function like people of a normal height do. I couldn’t go on a bus, train or plane. The seats were only made for people 6 feet and under. He was healthy despite all this, but he suffered from circulation problems in his legs and had little feeling in his feet.

Not only was he the tallest man in history, but he also had the largest hands and feet in history. His shoes had to be specially made, just like his clothes. His shoe size was 36 (37AA for US measurements), they were 47 cm (18.5 inches) long.

Human growth is caused by a hormone called “somatotropin”, the source of which is provided by the “pituitary gland”. When she was 12 years old, doctors discovered that this gland had become overactive, which was causing his abnormal growth. Her parents were warned that corrective surgery would be risky with no guarantee of success, so they decided against it.

Robert sadly died in his sleep on July 15, 1940. He was buried in his hometown. His coffin was 10 feet 9 inches (3.28 meters) long and he had to be carried by 12 men. The town closed out of respect and more than 40,000 people signed the register at his funeral.