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Abstract
Historians have been slow to follow the lead provided by Wray Vamplew's pioneering work on trade unionism in the British sports industry. The attention paid to permanent unions in sports such as golf and football has led to a neglect of those bodies which failed to make a lasting impact. This paper focuses on the history of one of those forgotten organisations, the National Union of Boxers (NUB). It argues that, despite organisational and financial difficulties, the NUB became an influential voice in the politics of British professional boxing during the 1930s.
Notes
1. See Braham Dabscheck's ‘ “Defensive Manchester”: A history of the Professional Footballers’ Association’, in Richard Cashman and Michael McKernan, eds, Sport in History (Brisbane, 1979), pp. 227–57; and ‘ “A man or a puppet?”: The Football Association's 1909 attempt to destroy the Association Football Players’ Union’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 8 (2) (1991), pp. 221–38; Tony Mason, Association football and English society, 1863–1915 (Brighton, 1980), pp. 110–17; Nicholas Fishwick, English football and society, 1910–1950 (Manchester, 1989), pp. 86–91; Matthew Taylor's The leaguers: The making of professional football in England, 1900–1939 (Liverpool, 2005), pp. 137–47; and ‘Labour relations and managerial control in English professional football, 1890–1939’, Sport History Review, 31 (2) (2000), pp. 80–99.
2. John Harding, For the good of the game: The official history of the Professional Footballers’ Association (London, 1991); Richard Holt, Peter N. Lewis and Wray Vamplew, The Professional Golfers’ Association, 1901–2001 (Droitwich, 2002).
3. The main exceptions are Wray Vamplew's ‘Not playing the game: Unionism in British professional sport, 1870–1914’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 2 (3) (1985), pp. 232–47; Pay up and play the game: Professional sport in Britain, 1875–1914 (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 239–53; and ‘Successful workers or exploited labour?: Golf professionals and professional golfers in Britain, 1888–1914’, Economic History Review, 61 (1) (2008), pp. 54–79. See also Tony Collins, Rugby league in twentieth century Britain: A social and cultural history (Abingdon, 2006), pp. 50–2, 87–9, 148–9.
4. See Lee Lowenfish, The imperfect diamond: A history of baseball's labor wars (New York, 1980); David Q. Voigt, ‘Serfs versus magnates: A century of labor strife in major league baseball’, in Paul D. Staudohar and James A. Mangan, eds, The business of professional sports (Urbana, 1991), pp. 95–114; Paul D. Staudohar, Playing for dollars: Labor relations and the sports business (Ithaca, 1996); Robert F. Burk, Never just a game: Players, owners and American baseball to 1920 (Chapel Hill, 1994); Robert F. Burk, Much more than a game: Players, owners and American baseball since 1921 (Chapel Hill, 2001); Charles P. Korr, The end of baseball as we knew it: The players union, 1960–81 (Urbana, 2002).
5. Chris Wrigley, ‘The trade unions between the wars’, in Chris Wrigley, ed., A history of British industrial relations, vol. 2: 1914–1939 (Brighton, 1987), pp. 71–2.
6. Keith Laybourn, A history of British trade unionism (Stroud, 1992), p. 143.
7. W. Hamish Fraser, A history of British trade unionism, 1700–1998 (Basingstoke, 1999), p. 177.
8. Stephen G. Jones, The British labour movement and film, 1918–1939 (London, 1987), pp. 67–88; Michael Sanderson, From Irving to Olivier: A social history of the acting profession, 1880–1983 (London, 1984), pp. 233–51.
9. Collins, Rugby league, pp. 50–2.
10. Speedway News, 17 Apr. 1930.
11. Speedway News, Feb. 1937 (Winter bulletin), 7 Aug. 1937, 14 May 1938. See also Jack Williams, ‘ “A wild orgy of speed”: Responses to speedway in Britain before the Second World War’, The Sports Historian, 19 (1) (1999), p. 5.
12. Mike Huggins, Horseracing and the British, 1919–39 (Manchester, 2003), p. 178 (quotation); Stephen G. Jones, Sport, politics and the working class: Organised labour and sport in interwar Britain (Manchester, 1988), p. 49.
13. Stan Shipley, ‘Boxing’, in Tony Mason, ed., Sport in Britain: A social history (Cambridge, 1989), p. 98, makes only a general reference to boxers’ unions that ‘have been started but … have always failed in this individualistic occupation.’ There is a brief mention of the NUB in Jones, Sport, politics and the working class, p. 49.
14. John Harding, Lonsdale's Belt: The story of boxing's greatest prize (London, 1994), pp. 19, 21; Times, 21 Sept. 1911.
15. On the earlier PBA, see Leslie Bell, Inside the fight game (London, 1952), pp. 13–25; Boxing news, 29 June 1949.
16. Guy Deghy, Noble and manly: The history of the national sporting club (London, 1956); Harding, Lonsdale's Belt.
17. Harding, Lonsdale's Belt, p. 72.
18. British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) Rules and Regulations, n.d.; Annual Report of BBBC 1924, National Archives (NA) Kew: HO 45/18745.
19. Sporting Life, 7 Dec. 1929.
20. Times, 24 Dec. 1928.
21. Boxing, Racing and Football, 2 Jan. 1929.
22. Sporting Life, 7 Dec. 1929.
23. Shipley, ‘Boxing’, p. 97.
24. W. Barrington Dalby, Come on Barry! (London, 1961), p. 116.
25. Shipley, ‘Boxing’, p. 105. On Brown, see Denis Fleming, The Manchester fighters (Manchester, 1986). On Lynch, see John Burrowes, Benny: The life and times of a fighting legend (Edinburgh, 1982).
26. Jeffrey T. Sammons, Beyond the ring: The role of boxing in American society (Urbana, 1990), pp. 79–91.
27. Randy Roberts, Jack Dempsey: The Manassa mauler (London, 1987).
28. Ted Broadribb, Fighting is my life (London, 1951), pp. 55–6; Daily Express, 26 Oct. 1934.
29. Shipley, ‘Boxing’, p. 91; Matthew Taylor, ‘Round the London ring: Boxing, class and community in interwar London’, London Journal, 34 (2) (2009), pp. 140–63.
30. Richard Holt, Sport and the British: A modern history (Oxford, 1989), p. 301.
31. Boxing, 1 Aug. 1934, 21 Aug. 1935, 1 Jan. 1936.
32. Boxing, 27 June 1934.
33. Daily Worker, 24 July 1934; Boxing, 25 July 1934.
34. Boxing, 5 Jan. 1938; Letter from H. Flower to G. Woodcock, 7 November 1957, Modern Records Centre (MRC), Warwick University: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS/91/30.
35. Peter Wilson, Ringside seat (London, 1949), p. 156; Holt, Sport and the British, p. 302; Dai Smith, ‘Focal heroes: A Welsh fighting class’, in Richard Holt, ed., Sport and the working class in modern Britain (Manchester, 1990), p. 207.
36. Gareth Williams, ‘Jimmy Wilde, the “Tylorstown Terror” ’, in Peter Stead and Gareth Williams, eds, Wales and its boxers: The fighting tradition (Cardiff, 2008), p. 60; Smith, ‘Focal heroes’, p. 207.
37. Boxing, 8 May 1935.
38. Shipley, ‘Boxing’, p. 93; Leslie Bell, Bella of Blackfriars (London, 1961), pp. 186–91.
39. Trevor Wignall, Ringside (London, 1941), pp. 145–52.
40. Charlie Rose, ‘My trio of British heavyweight champs’, Weekly Sporting Review (Xmas and New Year, 1948–9), p. 24. One reporter at an early NUB meeting noted that Harvey spoke with passion but was ‘hesitant in talking from written notes’. Daily Express, 10 Oct. 1934.
41. Jonathan Schneer, Ben Tillett: Portrait of a labour leader (London, 1982).
42. Boxing, 8 Apr. 1936.
43. Boxing, 8 Aug. 1934, 4 Dec. 1935; Letter from S. Gatley to I. Mackay, 23 Jan. 1951, MRC: Tillett Papers: MSS 74/6/2/31.
44. National Union of Boxers, Titles and Names of Officers, 29 July 1935, NA: FS 27/269; Boxing, 22 Jan. 1936, 21 Nov. 1934.
45. Boxing, 3, 10 Apr., 10 July 1935.
46. Boxing, 25 Sept. 1935.
47. Boxing, 20 Feb. 1935, 23 Sept. 1936; National Boxing Association, Form AR21, Annual Returns, NA: FS 27/269.
48. Bob Lonkhurst, ‘Jimmy Wilde led the way’, Boxing News, 26 July 1991, p. 21.
49. Vamplew, Pay up and play the game, p. 252.
50. Boxing, 8 Apr. 1936.
51. Boxing, 19 Sept., 10 Oct. 1934; List of National Council members on NUB notepaper, Letter from H.A. Flower to Registrar of Friendly Societies, 15 Dec. 1934, NA: FS 27/269.
52. Times, 9 Nov. 1937; Boxing, 23 Sept. 1936; Lonkhurst, ‘Jimmy Wilde led the way’, p. 20.
53. Boxing, 8 Apr. 1936.
54. Boxing, 1 Jan. 1936; Boxers, Bulletin quoted in Boxing, 22 July 1936.
55. Vamplew, Pay up and play the game, p. 252.
56. Rules of The National Union of Boxers, 1935, NA: FS 27/269; Boxing, 8 May 1935, 4 Sept. 1935.
57. Letter from H.A. Flower to W. Citrine, 12 June 1936, MRC: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS 292/91/30.
58. Letter from H.A. Flower to W. Citrine, 12 June 1936, MRC: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS 292/91/30.
59. Letter from D. Beech to W. Citrine, 13 Oct. 1936, MRC: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS 292/91/30.
60. Boxing, 1 July 1936; Letter from Secretary of TUC Organisation Department to W. Shaw, Glasgow Trades Council, 29 January 1937, MRC: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS 292/91/30.
61. Letter from H.V. Tewson to J.P. Roe, Bolton and District Trades Council, 17 Sept. 1936, MRC: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS 292/91/30.
62. Boxing, 28 Nov. 1934.
63. Rules of The National Union of Boxers, 1935, NA: FS 27/269.
64. Jones, British labour movement and film, p. 75; Taylor, The leaguers, p. 137.
65. See Boxing, 17 Oct. 1934, 20 Nov. 1935.
66. M. Connolly letter, printed in Boxing, 6 Feb. 1935; Topical Times, 8 Sept. 1934.
67. Boxing, Racing and Football, 29 July 1931.
68. Dalby, Come on Barry, p. 118. See also Bell, Inside the fight game, pp. 85–7.
69. Boxing, Racing and Football, 18 Nov., 9 Dec. 1931.
70. Topical Times, 8 Sep. 1934.
71. Boxing, 6 Feb. 1935.
72. Topical Times, 8 Sept. 1934; J. Hicks letter, printed in East London Advsertiser, 8 May 1937.
73. Boxing, 30 Oct. 1935.
74. Boxing, 31 July 1935.
75. Boxing, 27 Jan. 1937.
76. Boxing, 24 Mar. 1937; J. Hicks letter, printed in East London Advertiser, 3 Apr. 1937.
77. Weekly Sporting Review, 27 Mar. 1937.
78. J. Solomons letter, printed in East London Advsertiser, 8 May 1937; Boxing, 21 Apr. 1937. Emerys Llewellyn, London organiser of the NUB, commented that though Solomons had never demanded ‘seconds’ money’, ‘another official at his club had’. Boxing, 26 May 1937.
79. Boxing, 17, 24 Oct., 14 Nov. 1934, 9 Jan. 1935.
80. Boxing, 8, 15 Apr. 1936, 13 July 1938.
81. Boxing, passim.
82. Boxing, 3 Apr. 1935, 15 Apr. 1936.
83. K.G. Sheard, ‘ “Brutal and degrading”: The medical profession and boxing, 1838–1984’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 15 (3) (1998), p. 79; Boxing, 2 June 1937; Times, 17, 18 Jan. 1939; Neil Carter, ‘Boxing: A medical history’, forthcoming.
84. John Welshman, ‘Only connect: The history of sport, medicine and society’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 15 (2) (1998), p. 7.
85. Annual Report of BBBC 1924, p. 8, NA: HO 45/18745.
86. Vamplew, Pay up and play the game, pp. 251–3.
87. Boxing, 22 Apr. 1936.
88. Boxing, 14 Apr. 1937.
89. Letter from H.A. Flower to W. Citrine, 26 September 1935, MRC: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS 292/91/30.
90. Boxing, 17 June 1936.
91. Boxing, 28 Apr., 30 June 1937; Weekly Sporting Review, 19 June 1937.
92. Lonkhurst, ‘Jimmy Wilde’, p. 21.
93. See Bell, Inside the fight game, pp. 13–20
94. Topical Times, 8 January 1938.
95. Rules of National Union of Boxers, 1935, NA: FS 27/269.
96. See Boxing, 10, 17 Oct. 1934.
97. Boxing, 25 July 1934.
98. N. Curtis–Bennett letter, printed in Boxing, 9 Oct. 1935; H. Flower letter, printed in Boxing, 16 Oct. 1935. See also Times, 16 Oct. 1935.
99. Boxing, 20 May 1936.
100. C.F. Donmall letter, printed in Boxing, 27 May 1936 (quotation); Sporting Chronicle, 22 May 1936.
101. Boxing, 3 June 1936.
102. Boxing, 11 Nov. 1936; Letter from H.A. Flower to W. Citrine, 3 May 1937, MRC: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS 292/91/30.
103. Boxing, 14 Dec. 1938.
104. Times, 7 Jan. 1938.
105. Boxing, 7 Sept. 1938. The levy was extended in 1939 to include receipts from ‘television, broadcast, film, and still picture photography’. Times, 10 June 1939.
106. Topical Times, 8 Jan. 1938.
107. Boxing, 12 Jan. 1938. On the British Boxing Alliance, see Harding, Lonsdale's Belt, pp. 111–15.
108. Boxing, 8 Dec. 1937 (quotation); The Times, 14 Dec. 1937.
109. See Rules of The National Boxing Association, 1939, NA: FS 27/269.
110. Boxing, 15 July 1936.
111. Boxing, 18 Aug. 1937.
112. The People, 25 July 1937.
113. Boxing, 27 July 1938. One of the advantages suggested by the NBA in support of the plan was that ‘no colour bar’ would operate, a reference to the BBBC's exclusion of black boxers from fighting for championship titles in Britain. Under its scheme, excluded fighters such as Tommy Martin and Manuel Abrew would be open to compete for British titles. See Boxing, 24 Aug. 1938. On the colour bar more generally, see P.F. McDevitt, May the best man win: Sport, masculinity and nationalism in Great Britain and the empire, 1880–1935 (New York, 2004), pp. 58–80; Harding, Lonsdale's Belt, pp. 117–22.
114. Topical Times, 25 Mar. 1939.
115. Boxing, 3, 17 Aug. 1938.
116. Boxing, 5 Oct. 1938.
117. On discussions of the possibilities of a closed shop in boxing, see Boxing, 27 Feb. 1935, 8 Apr. 1936.
118. Letter from Pattinson and Brewer (solicitors) to Registrar of Friendly Societies, 17 July 1942, NA: FS 27/269.
119. Letter from E. Davies to H.V. Tewson, 3 Apr. 1947, MRC: TUC Files on Boxers: MSS 292/91/30; Letter from Registrar of Friendly Societies to Chief Inspector of Taxes, 30 Nov. 1948, NA: FS 27/269.