Early Life
Always believing him to be intelligent, his mother would ask him to count the motor cars passing at the front of their house, to which Joey would respond by blinking for each car that passed. During his childhood in the hospital, he proved his intelligence several times in tests, using non-verbal communication such as blinking or pointing with his nose.
Deacon had a number of leg surgeries at St. Childe's Hospital when he was about four, but these were not successful. When he was six, his mother died of tuberculosis and Joey was raised by his grandmother. At eight, following several more operations, he was admitted to Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton, then transferred six months later to Caterham Mental Hospital (latterly St Lawrence's Hospital), where he remained for the rest of his life. He remained in contact with his father until his father's death in 1939.
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