10 Facts About William Pullum

William Albert Pullum was an English physical culturist, strongman and weightlifter.

The winner of this event, William Slade, was destined to play a far-reaching role in young W A Pullum's health and future.

William Pullum found lodgings with the neighboring Slade family, of six brothers, three of whom made a livelihood by competing in strongman competitions.

The Slade brothers' association with the Saxon Trio and other traditional strongmen who frequented the stages of London's music halls, enabled William Pullum to observe their strength feats from theatre wings and talk to them in their dressing rooms.

In 1905, at a height of five-feet, five-inches and weighing 125 pounds, William Pullum appeared with the "Anglo Saxons," a trio specializing in acrobatic feats and classical weightlifting stunts.

William Pullum believed in instructing his "more promising" students on an individual basis to produce world-class weightlifters and bodybuilders.

Between 1911 and 1915, William Pullum won 192 British and world weightlifting records, won 15 British Championships, and was awarded 53 gold medals.

At the onset of World War I, William Pullum was appointed by the British military authorities to take charge of the conditioning of physically rejected recruits.

In 1942, at the height of the bombing of London, William Pullum saved a heavy-set woman from death by dislodging her from a ventilating shaft in a bomb shelter where 17 individuals had lost their lives.

William Albert Pullum died in 1960, at age 73 and is buried in Camberwell New Cemetery.