The Genius of Earlswood Asylum
The picture shows the Summer Fete at the Royal Earlswood Asylum with Pullen’s model of the Great Eastern in the centre.
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James Henry Pullen, known in his day as the Genius of Earlswood and described as an Idiot Savant, was born in Dalston, London 1835. He was admitted to Essex Hall, Colchester in 1850 and transferred to Earlswood when it opened in 1855. He died there in 1916 and his obituary was published in the Daily Telegraph.
He was given training in the carpenter’s shop and soon became an expert craftsman, and later a special workroom and exhibition room were set aside for him.
Over the 60 years spent at Earlswood he completed many fine models, paintings and drawings, and was also a fine carver in ivory. King Edward VII took great interest in him and sent him tusks of ivory to work with and Sir Edward Landseer visited him and sent him engravings of his work to copy. All was his own un-aided work, every part made by himself – indeed he was jealous of assistance and liked his own way.
Although well known as an example of an Idiot Savant – one who is mentally retarded but has special talent in one narrow field – we now know, in fact, that he was intelligent but suffered from a severe communication disorder and high frequency deafness. It is probable that he was aphasic i.e. he had difficulty in understanding and using language, due to defects in the central nervous system.
