Born on September 24^th 1888 in the town of Hébertville, in the region of Saguenay and St-Jean Lake, in the Canadian province of Quebec, Victor DeLamarre was born from the union of Charles DeLamarre and Marie Tremblay. He was born with a piece of the placenta on his head, which meant, according to common belief, that he was destined to great potential. Whether the belief was founded or not, Victor did develop an extraordinairy strength.

At the age of eight, the bicycle was his favourite sports, and he regularly left Quebec city and headed out to Saut Montmorrency, nearly 10 miles away (some 15 km). At the age of thirteen, he begins training for wrestling and boxing. At fourteen, he first heard of Louis Cyr who was reputed to be the world’s strongest man. The young DeLamarre boasted that he could best the strongman. Naturally, no one would believe him, given his age, but he had faith in his abilities. Later as a teenager, his exploits have people stunned and talking about him : at fifteen, he often carried, on his shoulders, loads of up to 450 lbs (over 200 kg) over several miles¹   and repeated this exploit on a daily basis.

As an adult, Victor had a spinal width of 4 inches, twice as large as contemporary strongmen, while he was only 5’4″. He entered the Montreal police forces and worked there two years. It’s at the 26, while working as a police officer, that Victor established his record breaking one-handed lift of 309.5 lbs (140,4 kg) on April 2^nd 1914, at the Montreal Arcade theater.² He then resigned from the police forces on June 12^th, 1914. He engaged in holy matrimony with Elmina Garneau on September 14th, 1914. It was on December 17th, 1921 that the diamond ornated golden belt establishing him as the world’s strongest man was handed out to him.³

Victor died on March 14th, 1955 at the St-François-d’Assise hospital in Quebec city. He was 67 years old.

¹ : DELAMARRE, E. (1998) p19

²: Ibid, p63

³ : Ibid, p171