James Henry Pullen

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James Henry Pullen (1835–1916) was a British savant known as the Genius of Earlswood Asylum. He was born in Dalston, London, and grew up on Balls Pond Road. Pullen and his brother William were considered deaf, mute, and developmentally disabled. By age seven Pullen could only say one word, “mother,” though he could lip-read, understand gestures, and write simple verse.

As a boy he carved ships from firewood and drew pictures of them. At 15 he moved to Earlswood Asylum in Reigate, Surrey, where staff said he could not speak but communicated with gestures. He never learned to read or write beyond a single syllable. William later joined him there; he was a talented painter and died at 35.

Earlswood taught crafts so patients could support themselves. Pullen became a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker, working by day and drawing at night. He could be reserved, but sometimes he wrecked his workshop in anger. When he wanted to marry a townswoman he fancied, staff kept him calm by giving him an admiral’s uniform.

Pullen drew the attention of royals. Queen Victoria liked some of his drawings, and Prince Albert received one of his Crimean War scenes. The future King Edward VII took an interest, calling Pullen “Friend Wales” and sending him ivory to carve. He also made a “State Barge” model for Queen Victoria and copied engravings sent by the artist Sir Edwin Landseer.

The doctor John Langdon Down gave Pullen a lot of freedom, allowing him to eat with the staff. Pullen’s masterpiece was a 10-foot model of the SS Great Eastern. He began it in 1870 and spent seven years building it, making every detail himself, including thousands of rivets and miniature interiors. It sank on its first voyage, but he fixed the buoyancy later, and the model was shown at the Crystal Palace.

Pullen also built a large mechanical mannequin in his workshop and spoke through a hidden bugle inside its mouth. After his death, his workshop became a museum for his work. The Royal Earlswood Hospital closed in 1997 and the site is now an apartment complex.

His SS Great Eastern model and other works are in the James Henry Pullen Collection at the Langdon Down Centre in Normansfield, Teddington, and have been shown in galleries and exhibitions, including Watts Gallery in 2018 and a nursing history exhibition.