Thomas Wadhouse was an English circus performer who lived in the 18th century. He is most famously known for having the world’s longest nose, which measured 7.5 inches (19 cm) long. Strand Magazine, Vol. XI (published in 1896), described Wadhouse as follows:
“Thus, if noses were ever uniformly exact in representing the importance of the individual, this worthy ought to have amassed all the money in Threadneedle Street and conquered all Europe, for this prodigious nose of his was a compound of the acquisitive with the martial. But either his chin was too weak or his brow too low, or Nature had so exhausted herself in the task of giving this prodigy a nose as to altogether forget to endow him with brains; or perhaps, the nose crowded out this latter commodity. At all events, we are told this Yorkshireman expired, nose and all, as he had lived, in a condition of mind best described as the most abject idiocy.”
Other records seem to indicate that Wadhouse was intellectually disabled and most likely suffered from some sort of facial deformity. He died at around 50 years of age in 1780 in Yorkshire, England. Wadhouse may have served as a source of inspiration for Pinocchio, which was published a century after his death in 1881.
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