Veritable giant and world’s tallest former living man Leonard Priestly has officially broken the record for the world’s longest corpse after he passed peacefully at his home in Longford, Tasmania.
At a towering height of 11ft 2in, Priestly was declared the tallest man in the world by Guinness World Records back in 1998 in Brickendon, a world heritage listed colonial farm village, where he tended to a prize-winning garden.
Despite a daunting size and giant physique the part-time farmer was known for his sunny disposition and charitable intentions.
His partner, Virginia Stone, says of the new record that, were he still alive, today “he would have been proud. He was never content with what he had and he would love to know he had taken a second record. He always aimed higher. Not physically, of course. That would be madness.”
Stone is an average 5ft 1 in, their two children are also of average height.
He will be remembered by his family as a loving symbol of humanity’s precious variety, and by everyone else for being the world’s tallest man.
He is survived by 8ft 3 in-tall Sultan Kösen in Ankara, Turkey.
If we drew him, it’d continue all the way to page 64.
