(Sir) John Sulman

Sir John Sulman (1849-1934), architect, was born on 29 August 1849 at Greenwich, Kent, England, third son of John Sulman, jeweller, and his wife Martha, née Quinton. He was educated at Greenwich Proprietary School and in 1863 passed the Oxford junior examination. After his family moved to Croydon next year, he was articled to Thomas Allom, a London architect; he learned the use of oils and water-colour, and executed perspective drawings for Sir George Gilbert Scott.

Following illness, Sulman resumed work in London in 1868. While articled to H. R. Newton, he attended classes at the Architectural Association and at the Royal Academy of Arts, winning the Pugin travelling scholarship in 1871. An associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1872 (fellow, 1883), Sulman designed the Congregational Church at Caterham, Surrey: the first wedding there was his own, to Sarah Clark Redgate (d.1888) on 15 April 1875. They moved to Bromley, Kent. He lectured on applied art and formed the Nineteenth Century Art Society.

In Italy in 1882 he contracted typhoid at Naples; two years later Sarah showed signs of tuberculosis. Although president elect of the Architectural Association, Sulman sold his practice* (which had produced over seventy churches and other buildings) and left with his wife and son for Australia. Reaching Sydney on 13 August 1885, he paid £3000 next year to enter partnership with C. H. E. Blackmann in Sydney. Some months later Blackmann fled the country with a Sydney barmaid, leaving Sulman liable for his debts.

* The London practice was continued under the style of Potts Sulman and Hennings