Barrett Crumen

The 'most famous of the Wairarapa swaggers' arrived, rather abruptly, in New Zealand on 23 June, 1912. The man officially known as Barrett Crumen but known to all as ‘Russian Jack’ was born in Latvia on 26 March 1878, in a small village called Alexandra.

Many people remembered him as an immensely strong man who worked as a scrubcutter and shed hand at Awhea Station for many years. He was also recalled for his prodigious appetite and his fondness of tobacco.

Originally very tall and strong, Russian Jack seemed to shrink as he aged. He became bow-legged and his feet were obviously giving him more and more trouble. One foot seemed to be permanently bent over. In mid-1965 he was admitted to Pahiatua Hospital suffering from frost bitten feet. He was shortly transferred to the Buchanan Ward of Greytown Hospital, where he died on 19 September, 1968.