THOMAS
,
THOMAS
(
1880
-
1911
),
first British middle-weight boxing champion
;
b.
8 April 1880
, at
Carncelyn Farm
,
Pen-y-graig
,
Rhondda, Glam.
He started his
boxing
career in the hard way,
touring in a boxing booth
with
Jim
Driscoll
and
Freddie Welsh
(
F. H.
Thomas
, q.v.)
. His main training took the form of
bare-back horse-riding
which he did over the mountains above
Pen-y-graig
, and it was in this way that he prepared for most of his contests.
Thomas
avoided the limelight and lived a detached life. He saved every penny of his ring earnings and even
fought with a bull
called ‘
Billy One-Horn
,’ thus saving himself the expense of paying for sparring partners. After winning the
heavy-weight championship
of the
Rhondda Valley
,
Thomas
went to
London
and took part in a
National Sporting Club
middleweight competition
which he won. Four more victories in
London
were gained in
1899
. But his first important contest was in
May 1906
when he met and defeated the
Irishman
Pat
O'Keefe
in what was virtually a championship contest. When the first
Lonsdale Belt
was put for the middle-weight class in
1909
,
Thomas
was matched against
Charlie
Wilson
, whom he defeated in two rounds, and thus became the first holder of the
Lonsdale Belt
in the middleweight class. He d.
13 Aug. 1911
from the results of
acute rheumatism
.
Bibliography:
-
Boxing News world's premier fight
weekly
, London
,
20 Aug. 1947
, 5;
-
Western Mail
,
14 Aug. 1911, and 2 Dec. 1949
(Former Welsh Boxing Champions, No. 11, by
Tudor James
).
Author:
Dr Moelwyn Idwal Williams, M.A., Aberystwyth
