Jumbo in Worthing Came Ashore in 1926

The Baby Elephant Jumbo in Worthing Came Ashore in 1926

The baby elephant statue, affectionately called Jumbo, stands at Worthing’s Splash Point beside the Bayside Apartments. It marks a genuine, though tragic, event in the town’s history.

According to the Worthing Herald published in 1926, we learn that:

Jumbo Comes Ashore

We take pride in the unusual items that wash up on our coast, from a sunfish to a gold Celtic armlet at Selsey, or a seal at Wittering. Now, Worthing has topped the list with a unique beach find.

Last week, people on the seafront noticed a large object just offshore. As it drifted in, it was clearly a wooden crate. Local fishermen pulled it onto the beach and, to their shock, discovered a dead elephant inside.

The carcass drew curious crowds. The cause of Jumbo’s death remains uncertain; perhaps his cage was washed overboard in a recent storm.

Source: Worthing Herald, Saturday 13 November 1926.

Another regional newspaper also carried the report about Jumbo

According to the Chichester Observer published in 1926, we are told that:

Dead Elephant Washed Ashore

There was considerable excitement in Worthing on Thursday morning following the confirmation of a report that a dead elephant had washed ashore at Splash Point [Worthing].

A large crowd gathered to view the body of a young elephant. No official inquiry was held into Jumbo’s remains, which were later disposed of.

The animal was pulled ashore by two fishermen, Mr A. Dunford and Mr J. Bashford, who presumed it came from a cattle boat that sank off the coast of Deal on Tuesday.

Source: Chichester Observer published on Wednesday, 17 November 1926.

You can view the above newspaper reports at the British Newspaper Archive. A Subscription is required. This is not an affiliate link.

Jumbo in Worthing Immortalised in a Beautiful Statue

Statue of the baby elephant Jumbo in Worthing. — Statue of the baby elephant Jumbo in Worthing

Decades later, the story of the 1926 elephant, which had faded into local folklore, was revived by the seafront developers.

The statue was installed as part of the Bayside development. The developers, Roffey Homes and The Worthing Journal, created the bronze monument to mark this unusual piece of Worthing’s history. Source: Worthing Journal, 17 November 2020.

The developers sought to honour “Jumbo” because his final resting place was so close to where they were building, deeming the story an important, if strange, historical footnote for the area.

Today, the life-sized statue of baby Jumbo stands on the Worthing seafront, near the Perch on the Parade restaurant and the Bayside Apartments.

This tender, poignant tribute evokes the memory of the lost elephant whose difficult journey ended on East Beach, commemorating the heartbreaking discovery and the Worthing community’s compassionate response nearly a century ago.