The Sleeping Girl of Turville

Ellen Sadler (May 15, 1859 – after 1901), sometimes called The Sleeping Girl of Turville, was a resident of Turville, a small village in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. In 1871, aged eleven, she purportedly fell asleep and did not wake for nine years. The case attracted international attention from newspapers, medical professionals and the public.

Born to a large, impoverished family of farm workers, Ellen was sent to work as a nursemaid at the age of eleven. Soon afterwards, she began suffering periods of drowsiness and was referred to a local hospital. After four months her condition was declared incurable, and she was sent home. Two days later, Ellen had a series of seizures and—her mother claimed—fell into a deep sleep from which she could not be roused.

Ellen became a tourist attraction for the village, and her family made considerable money from visitors' donations. As the years progressed with no sign of Ellen's waking, speculation grew that her illness was either a hoax or caused by her mother, an issue that was never resolved. In late 1880, soon after her mother's death, Ellen awoke. She later married and had at least five children.

Ellen Sadler was born on May 15, 1859 to Ann and William Sadler, who lived in the small village of Turville, Buckinghamshire. The Sadlers were a large, impoverished family consisting mainly of farmhands; Ellen, the youngest child, shared her home with her eleven siblings. Ellen's father died while she was an infant; Ann Sadler subsequently married Thomas Frewen.

In 1870, aged eleven, Ellen began work as a nursemaid in nearby Marlow, but she began suffering periods of somnolence and her employment was terminated. She was subsequently attended by a local doctor, Henry Hayman F.R.C.S., from nearby Stokenchurch. Ellen had been suffering for 13 weeks from "glandular swellings" or an abscess on the back of her head, and symptoms consistent with a spinal disease. The family did not have much money, so the parish vicar, The Reverend Studholme, asked Hayman to secure Ellen's admission to a local hospital, where her condition worsened. Ellen stayed at the hospital for 18 weeks before being "discharged as incurable" in March 1871.

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