Born at Little Gidding, then in Huntingdonshire, on 29 February 1836, he was the elder son of the four children of William Pullen, rector there, and his wife Amelia, daughter of Henry Wright.
[1] Back in England in 1898, Pullen held successively the curacy of Rockbeare, Devon (1898–9) and several locum-tenancies.
In May 1903 he became rector of Thorpe Mandeville, Northamptonshire, where was a brass tablet to his memory on the chancel wall.
[1] Near the end of 1870, a month into the Siege of Paris (1870–71), Pullen found fame with a pamphlet The Fight at Dame Europa's School.
John is reproached by Dame Europa for cowardice, is told that he has grown "a sloven and a screw", and is threatened with loss of his position.
[1][4] Several pamphlets (1869–72) on reform of cathedral organisation and clerical unbelief were combative, and Pullen was active in controversy until nearly the end of his life.
In stories of school life, Tom Pippin's Wedding (1871), The Ground Ash (1874), and Pueris Reverentia (1892), he tackled issues in the English educational system.