BOXERS ON THE TITANIC
The day an American dream turned into a tragedy for two ghters
IN the January 21, 1911 edition of Boxing News, the following notice appeared: “Wanted – a smart boxer. A well-known American sports promoter has just written to me from across the Atlantic to ask me to recommend a smart boxer for a trip across the water, and the terms, which I do not care to make public, will gladden the heart of the selected man. At present I have two lightweights in view, both good men.”
The article was penned by the Welsh correspondent, Charles A Barnett, and it referred to an invitation he had received from a wealthy American racehorse owner and sports promoter, Frank Torreyson. The two men Barnett had in mind were Fred Delaney of Bradford and Fred Dyer of Cardiff, and both were lightweights of the highest class. By September, Barnett had added Eddie Morgan of Merthyr, another top-class fighter, to his list of potential candidates. Things went quiet until the following February, when Torreyson requested that the matter be dealt with as a matter of urgency.
None of the three boxers were available at such sudden notice, and so Barnett selected Leslie Williams (Tonypandy) and Dai Bowen (Treherbert) in their place. They were due to board the Lusitania immediately for a year’s tour of the American rings and it was a great chance for both to earn fame and fortune. In early April, Barnett wrote that “By the time these notes appear Leslie Williams and Dai Bowen will be on their way to America.” Due to a slight delay, Barnett had changed their booking so that they were now due to sail on the Titanic. How excited these two lads must have been to be making a trip to the United States and to be doing so on board the maiden voyage of the largest liner afloat.
Even allowing for the poor reporting of professional boxing in Wales at the time, it is difficult to find many contests for either Williams or Bowen before they set sail and I suspect they were much less experienced than the boxers that Torreyson had in mind. Williams had had 10 traceable contests and Bowen six. Although both men had graduated to 15 and 20-round class against some decent Welsh featherweights and lightweights, they had not yet met the leading lights from England and Scotland.
Bowen was a promising young fighter and Williams, although he had beaten the likes of Ike Bradley (Liverpool) and Young Warner (Marylebone), had recently been knocked out by Will Galley (Wrekenton) and Arthur Evans (Tirphil), both men of high class. Barnett must have seen something special in both lads to propose that they make the trip.
At 11.40pm on Saturday April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and within 150 minutes she had sank. Neither Bowen or Williams were lucky enough to board a lifeboat. Along with the majority of those aboard they perished in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Delaney, Dyer and Morgan must have counted their lucky stars not to have been on board, and all three of them went on to forge excellent careers in the years either side of the Great War.
Writing in Boxing News shortly after the disaster, Barnett said that “All readers will, I feel sure, join in the tenderest vote of sympathy with the relatives of the victims of the Titanic, and especially with Mrs Leslie Williams and Mrs Bowen, the aged mother of Dai Bowen. It seems but a moment ago since the two young boxers gripped my hand in farewell from the train which took them to Southampton. What strange fate!”
Barnett must have felt a degree of responsibility towards the families of Bowen and Williams. He had personally selected these men for the American tour, little realising that in acquiescing to Williams’ request to delay their departure, he was sealing the fate of both men. He was not, of course, responsible in any way for their deaths, but the decisions that he made must have been hard to bear. He took an active part in publicising, and arranging, the many benefit tournaments that took place in South Wales during the following month for the dependants of the two deceased, and I am sure that Barnett never forgot them.