Ground Breaking Boxers

Harry Brown

In 1896 a well-known Liverpool boxer Harry Brown was attracting the attention of the boxing world demonstrating his sporting proficiency in the boxing ring, by being crowned coloured champion of the North West of England in the lightweight division. Little is known of Harry Brown, beyond the fact that his professional career lasted from 1896 till 1912. Other Liverpool black boxers from the early twentieth century include William Lawson (Young Snowball), the hard-hitting Jamaican bantam and the only Merseyside based boxer to defeat the late great Ike Bradley at Birkenhead Drill Hall. He began his career in 1905 and retired in 1916. During this period, he fought at the Skating Rink Dale Street, as well as the Adelphi Theatre and the Old Pudsey Street Stadium, in Liverpool. Boxing was a grim and soul destroying business. He fought with equal passion and commitment in his trail blazing efforts to secure fairer and better conditions for both his fellow boxers and those who followed in his foot steps.