Jimmy Allender

James “Jimmy” Allender was a Derry-born circus performer known as the “Derry Giant”, with a reported height of 7 feet 6 inches. His career took him into American showbusiness, where he is said to have performed alongside Tom Thumb.

He later fell on hard times and died in a South Shields workhouse in July 1886. He was buried at Westoe Cemetery, reportedly in an unmarked grave. The accompanying illustration depicts Tom Thumb.