Joseph Merrick

Joseph Carey Merrick was born in Leicester on 5 August 1862 and began developing severe physical deformities before age five. After his mother's death when he was eleven, his father remarried and rejected him; he moved in with an uncle, then entered the Leicester Union Workhouse at seventeen. In 1884 he contacted showman Sam Torr and proposed his own exhibition, touring the East Midlands and then London, where surgeon Frederick Treves examined him and presented him to the Pathological Society. When police shut down the exhibition, Merrick joined a circus and toured Europe, only to be robbed and abandoned by his manager in Brussels. He made his way back to London Hospital, where Treves arranged for him to live permanently. There he built intricate architectural models, received daily visits from Treves, and met members of high society including Alexandra, Princess of Wales. He died on 11 April 1890 of a dislocated neck, though the official cause was recorded as asphyxia.