MOMENTOUS DAY

When Sollas and co hit UK shores, the face of the sport changed for the better

ON June 22, 1948, the Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Dockyard in London’s East End, carrying 492 men and women from the West Indies. They were the first of the post-war immigrants to come to the UK, hoping to start a new life and to give future generations the best chance possible. Included among them were five boxers and their manager. The son of one of these boxers would go on to become British featherweight champion 26 years later.

As the boxers prepared to leave the vessel, they had their picture taken by a press photographer. They are, from the top downwards [pictured on facing page], Charles Smith, Ted Ansell, Ezzie Reid, John Hazel and Vernon Sollas. Standing on the deck, to the right, is their manager, Mortimer G Martin. All five of the new arrivals were reasonably well-established professionals in their homeland, and they arrived in Britain at a fortuitous time, as only six days later Dick Turpin became the first black boxer to win a British title under BBBOFC rules. The ‘colour bar’ had finally been lifted just a few weeks before this contest.

Martin established his base in Liverpool and within a fortnight his lads were boxing competitively. Throughout the summer of 1948 they featured on most of the shows held at Birkenhead Drill Hall, and Sollas became the first of them to box at the famous Liverpool Stadium when he outpointed Albert Fielding of Wrexham in early August.

By the end of the year the stable had seen action in Belfast, Morecambe, West Hartlepool, Northampton, Perth, Glasgow, Halifax and Blackburn. Sollas and Hazel stood out as the best, and between them they won most of the 100 or so bouts that they took part in over the next five years.

Sollas boxed at bantamweight and featherweight, and he beat the likes of Sammy Fisher, Jimmy Stewart, Tommy Madine and Jackie Horseman, before he settled in Edinburgh, where in 1954, one year after his retirement, he had a son, who he named after himself.

After finishing with the game in 1953, Sollas became a trainer with Madison BC, one of the best clubs in his adopted city. He took his son along to the club to teach him the game. He taught him well.

After a highly successful amateur career, young Vernon, aged 18, turned pro in 1973. I can remember the sensational way in which he blazed his way through the featherweight rankings so quickly. Within his first year he had won 10 of his 11 contests and was ranked number four in Britain. The loss, a six-round stoppage at the hands of hard-punching George Mcgurk, was a serious one, however, and it was an early warning of what was to come.

Sollas won the British feather title in 1975 by knocking out Jimmy Revie, and he became the second youngest British title-holder in doing so. The world appeared to be at his feet, before a 1976 challenge for the European belt ended dramatically when he was stopped in the 14th round by Elio Cotena.

He fought three more times in 1977 and lost all of them inside the distance, and he quit the game at 22. Scans revealed that he had suffered bruising to the brain quite early on in his career and this had led to him suffering seizures while in the ring. He was bitterly disappointed that his career had come to such a sudden and unexpected end, and so he channelled his efforts elsewhere and went on to become a successful businessman and a well-respected trainer.

His success, both inside and outside the ring, pays testament to the hopes and dreams of the 492 individuals, his father among them, who stepped down the gangplank in Tilbury 70 years ago. Mortimer Martin and his lads were the trailblazers for the generations that followed them, and they have made a huge impact, not only on British boxing, but on British sport and society as a whole.