100-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Remembering the British pro boxers who fought and died in the German offensive of March 1918

HUNDREDS of British professional boxers were killed or wounded in the First World War, and among the best-known of them to be killed were Charlie Allum, Bob Cotton, Jerry Delaney, Bill Ladbury and Tom Mccormick. Others who died include Will Blakeborough, Peter Brown, Jack Bunner, Stoker Hoskyne, Tom Irving, Charlie Lampey, Mick Lavery, Harold Littlewood, George Peters, Punch Prill, Jim Shires, Tom Silk and Bob Yewman.

To give myself some respite from the many hours each week that I spend researching the history of British boxing, I occasionally tread the boards in amateur dramatics. By the time this article is published I will be halfway through a production of Journey’s End, in which I play an infantry officer who was killed in the German offensive of March 1918. With this in mind, I would like to pay tribute to three boxers who died in this particular battle and also tell you about two others who survived it.

Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand Allied soldiers became casualties during the battle, in which Germany very nearly won the war, and I have found evidence for 16 of these casualties who boxed professionally. The five I have chosen to commemorate were all men of high standing and their records are littered with famous names.

The first to die, on April 4, 1918, was Frank Jago of Plymouth. Jago boxed professionally as Young Jago and he had many contests at the famous Cosmopolitan Gymnasium in Plymouth. He was the first man to beat future British flyweight champion and world title claimant Joe Symonds.

Jim Carver of Newport died on April 10. Carver was the first fighter to defeat future great Frank Moody in 1914. He repeated the feat two years later. Moody went on to become a two-weight British champion who crossed gloves with Harry Greb, Tiger Flowers and Max Rosenbloom.

On April 14, Alec Lafferty died of wounds received in the battle. Alec had boxed the great Digger Stanley for the British bantamweight title in 1912 and he became Scottish featherweight champion in 1915. He was also one of the few men to beat Tancy Lee inside the distance.

Quite how these three would have progressed, but for the war, is anybody’s guess, but they all had that opportunity taken from them. Newcastle’s Jimmy Britt survived but was badly wounded in the battle. Jimmy had fought Percy Wilson and Ike Pratt in a long professional career and, after the war ended, he was unable to box, so he returned to the ring as a referee in the same North Eastern halls that he had graced so many times with the gloves on.

Pat Mcenroy did see out the war unscathed and he was very lucky to do so. As a career soldier he was one of the first to arrive in France and saw action immediately upon his arrival. An Irish Guardsman, Pat served throughout the full four years of war, and he fought his last professional contest, shortly after his exploits in this battle, while based at camp in Ripon.

Pat had his first contest as a young private in 1908. He quickly established himself as one of the Army’s leading boxers, and he was a finalist in the Army and Navy Championships in 1910 and 1911, eventually winning the event in 1912. In those days, some of the best British professionals also served in the military, and Pat was so good that he was invited to contest the vacant British middleweight title in a 20-round contest at National Sporting Club against Rushden’s Jack Harrison.

Although Mcenroy lost this bout on points, he remained a leading middleweight until the outbreak of war. He was the first boxer to be commissioned from the ranks as an officer and he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1915.

Let us all remember, on the 100th anniversary of this momentous battle, the many boxers who fought and died in it.