I edited my post to include metric units for those numbers.
And sure, it’s fine to say that is short from your own personal perspective but yes statistically the average height was less back then. Even so the average height today is only about 10 cm more.
You may just be taller than average if you are that incredulous about his height. I don’t consider 5’5" (1.68 m) to be that far off from the average height of men in most countries today. If he were under say 5’ (1.52 m) I would say that is significantly shorter.
I was today years old when I realized this thing has a name and it is called “Hellmo”.