Career
Born in Rotherham in 1894, [1] Tom Gummer served as a Private (and later Corporal and Sergeant) in the York and Lancaster Regiment of the British Army, [2] and had his first professional fight in 1914. He won all of his fights (at least eleven) that year, and his first two of 1915, including a victory over former British heavyweight champion "Iron" Hague by knockout with three seconds of the final round remaining. [3] [4] A planned fight in July 1914 against David Cohen (aka Dick Simmonds) resulted in a court case after Cohen took payment for the fight but then disappeared after seeing Gummer and becoming "nervous and frightened". [5] Gummer suffered his first defeat to Gus Platts in August 1915, at which time Gummer was a heavyweight and Platts a welterweight and over 2 stones lighter, and his second to Harry Curzon in November. [6]
Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England, which together with its conurbation and outlying settlements to the north, south and south-east forms the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, with a recorded population of 257,280 in the 2011 census. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, its central area is on the banks of the River Don below its confluence with the Rother on the traditional road between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham was well known as a coal mining town as well as a major contributor to the steel industry.
The York and Lancaster Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1881 until 1968. The regiment was created in the Childers Reforms of 1881 by the amalgamation of the 65th Regiment of Foot and the 84th Regiment of Foot. The regiment saw service in many small conflicts and both World War I and World War II until 1968, when the regiment chose to be disbanded rather than amalgamated with another regiment, one of only two infantry regiments in the British Army to do so, with the other being the Cameronians.
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of British Armed Forces. As of 2018, the British Army comprises just over 81,500 trained regular (full-time) personnel and just over 27,000 trained reserve (part-time) personnel.
In 1919 he faced both Platts and Curzon again, and won both fights. [7]
He got his first British title shot in March 1920 against Jim Sullivan after reigning champion Pat O'Keeffe retired from boxing; Gummer won after Sullivan retired in the 14th round. [8] He followed this with a win over Bandsman Jack Blake and a draw with Herbert Crossley before fighting Ercole Balzac for the European middleweight title in Paris in December 1920; Gummer was knocked out in the ninth round. [9]
Jim Sullivan was a British boxer who was British middleweight champion between 1910 and 1912. He went on to challenge for the European title.
John Blake, better known as Bandsman Jack Blake, was a British boxer who became British middleweight champion in 1916.
He had a second shot at the European title in March 1921 against Gus Platts, a fight in which Gummer was also defending his British title; Gummer retired in the sixth round, losing his title. [10]
Augustus T. "Gus" Platts was a British boxer who was British and European middleweight champion.
Gummer's final fight was against Ted Kid Lewis in February 1922 at The Dome in Brighton; Intended as a fight for Lewis's British middleweight title, it was fought as a non-title catchweight bout after Gummer failed to make the weight; Lewis knocked Gummer out in the first round. [11]
Brighton is a seaside resort on the south coast of England that is part of the City of Brighton and Hove, located 47 miles (76 km) south of London.
After retiring from boxing, Gummer played football for Rotherham Eastwood in the 1920s and worked as a boxing referee between the late 1920s and the 1940s. [12] [13] [14] [15]
Tom Gummer married Myra McMahon and they had four children together. [1] He died in Rotherham in 1982. [1]
