SOUTH COAST MR BOXING

Sam Turner found lasting fame as Bournemouth’s boxing mogul and the discoverer of Freddie Mills

ONE man more than any other is synonymous with the history of Bournemouth boxing. Whether managing fighters, promoting shows or ‘spieling’ outside the famous Sam Mckeowen booth in the summer, Jack Turner had a perennial presence in the town for almost 50 years. Surprisingly, though, the man best remembered as Bournemouth’s ‘Mr Boxing’ hailed from the other end of the country.

Jack was born in Manchester where he was based during his own ring career – which started in 1920, ended in 1933 and saw him engage in 62 pro bouts, per historian Miles Templeton’s record. In 1928, Turner had a string of 10-rounders on Len Johnson’s boxing booth, and it’s likely many other booth bouts go unrecorded. Notably, that year, Jack won a decision over a young “Cast Iron” Casey, the redoubtable Sunderland fighter who challenged for Len Harvey’s British middleweight crown. Though Turner bore few hallmarks of his trade, he did lose the sight of one eye through boxing.

In the early 1930s, Jack moved to Bournemouth and was soon promoting fights at the town’s Westover Ice Rink. In 1936, he staged a novice welterweight competition that unearthed a future world champion. This newcomer to pro rings, a local 16-year-old milkman, won the tournament with three knockouts. Twelve years later, he captured the world light-heavyweight crown. His name was Freddie Mills.

Throughout the late ’30s, Mills boxed regularly and almost exclusively on Turner’s shows and was managed by Jack’s brother Bob Turner. Together, the Turner brothers were instrumental in building Mills into the force he became. But RAF service in World War Two took Freddie away from Bournemouth, and it was under London manager Ted Broadribb that he became a world champion.

Like all Turner fighters, Mills was put through the hard-knock school of the boxing booths every summer. Another of Jack’s charges, 1940s and ’50s bantam Peter Fay, recalled: “There wasn’t enough money in licensed shows, £10 to £25 per bout, so boxing in the booths brought that little extra cash. It was hard work, erecting the booth, pulling it down and boxing sometimes 30 rounds per day. But the big disadvantage was the lack of proper training facilities and supervision.”

However, Fay’s stablemate, featherweight Teddy Peckham, who travelled with Mckeowen’s booth for about 10 summers from the age of 15, considered it “a fantastic schooling”.

Undoubtedly, the fighters Turner managed were worked hard. Peckham finished with a 94-54-14 record; Fay got to 22-6-6 in his first 18 months as a pro; and Harry Legge, another Turner boxer, had 35 fights in 1947 alone. These are extremely high figures for post-war pros who were not journeymen.

Torquay welterweight Paul King, who was managed by Turner for five years, wrote in his autobiography, Torquay Tornado: “Jack thought any money was good money. He cared less about the quality of the bout or the progress of the fighter than getting a cut of the proceeds... While I was with him he had several excellent boxers [but] Jack would have them top of the bill one fight and next they would be opening for someone with far less skill at some rotten hall.”

King may have been right, but Peckham and Fay had fonder memories. “Jack had to take a lot of stick on his management of boxers,” admitted Fay, “but he never overmatched me. I’m very happy that I knew him.”

Peckham, meanwhile, remarked philosophically: “I had a wonderful career. Remember I lived in a seaside holiday resort, quite away from the madding throng, and to think I met some of the best boxers in Britain was an achievement in itself.”

Whatever Turner’s merits or faults, this much is certain: his place in Bournemouth ring history is assured.