Walter Cornelius (born Voldemārs Korņejevs, 11 April 1924 – 23 September 1983) was a Latvian

strongman In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. Thes ...

, stuntman and philanthropist who escaped the Iron Curtain and settled in

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, England, where he gained notoriety by taking part in a range of bizarre stunts. Cornelius left Soviet-occupied Latvia and made it to the West by swimming the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

. During the swim he was fired at by guards, but despite being shot in the stomach, he made a successful escape. Settling in Peterborough, where he remained for the rest of his life, he worked as a lifeguard at the city's

Lido Lido may refer to: Geography Africa * Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco Asia * Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing * Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok * Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MN ...

. He received

naturalisation Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

in 1971. Cornelius gained notoriety by exhibiting feats of great strength and stamina, as well as carrying out bizarre novelty stunts such as pushing a pea through the city with his nose, letting people use a sledgehammer to break a slab of concrete that he had on his head, and walking miles on his hands. Perhaps his most famous stunt, as the "Daredevil Birdman", was his annual (unrealistic) attempt to fly across the

River Nene The River Nene ( or : see below) is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in Northamptonshire.OS Explorer Map sheet 223, Northampton & Market Harborough, Brixworth & Pitsford Water. The river is about long, about of w ...

by wearing a bird-suit and flapping huge wings attached to his arms. Although doomed to failure, each "flight attempt" gained publicity and drew large crowds. In July 1967, he appeared on BBC's '' Blue Peter'' when

John Noakes John Noakes (born John Wallace Bottomley; 6 March 1934 – 28 May 2017) was an English television presenter and former actor. He co-presented the BBC children's magazine programme ''Blue Peter'' in the 1960s and 1970s and was the show's longes ...

used a sledge hammer to break a concrete slab on Cornelius's head.''Peterborough Standard'' 14 July 1967 p. 6 A philanthropist in later life, while working at the Lido he would urge the more proficient swimmers to take up bodybuilding. In 2016,

Peterborough Lido The Lido in the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire was first opened as the Corporation Swimming Pool in 1936 by the Mayor of Peterborough Arthur Mellows, and is one of the few survivors of its type still in use in the United Kingdom. A striki ...

erected a silhouette of Cornelius as a weathercock on the swimming pool's

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

References

1923 births 1983 deaths 20th-century philanthropists Latvian World War II refugees Latvian philanthropists People from Peterborough Stunt performers Defecting sportspeople {{England-bio-stub