Edmund Trebus

Edmund Zygfryd Trebus (born November 11, 1918 near Gdansk, Poland – September 29, 2002) was a Polish émigré to Britain and compulsive hoarder, who came to fame when he was featured on a British television documentary called A Life of Grime. His most famous phrase was, "Stick it up your chuffer!".

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When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht.[1] He was then captured and served with the allied forces in Italy, in an anti-tank unit of the II Corps of the Polish armed forces, which was under British command.

After moving to England just after the end of the Second World War, Edmund married. He and his wife (who would predecease him) had five children. They all still lived in Britain but they seldom visited him.

Edmund had been "a collector" all his life and he was often seen pushing a hand cart filled with his latest acquisitions, which he would carefully sort into similar piles in his garden and home. One of Edmund's major loves was Elvis Presley, and he managed to collect and store away almost every record recorded by the artist.

When he was in his eighties he lived by himself in a run-down house in Crouch End in north London. He was constantly in trouble with the environmental health department of the London Borough of Haringey, because of complaints about the rubbish surrounding his home. He lived in a tiny area of the house on the ground floor, surrounded by piles of rubbish because he never threw anything away. In a BBC documentary series, A Life Of Grime, Trebus was shown arguing with council workers who had arrived to clean his house. He was eventually placed in a nursing home, where he died at the age of 83.

See also

• Collyer brothers