Between 1967 and 1993 Kempster appeared in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the tallest men in England.

On Christmas Day 1897, his father died and eight-year-old Kempster and his two-year-old brother George were placed by their mother in the care of a Barnardo's orphanage in September 1898.

[1] Shipped off to Canada by the charity, Kempster returned to England on 12 November 1904, aged 15.

[2] In June 1911, Kempster joined the Astley and Co.'s American Circus at Chigwell in Essex as a professional giant.

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Kempster was in Germany and was placed under house arrest in Berlin by the German authorities.