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By courtesy of The News, Portsmouth
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OF all the Service champions who appeared at the Connaught Drill Hall between the two wars none was more colourful in action
than Officers' Steward Sid Ingram.
He was the most muscular featherweight I have ever seen. A
pocket Hercules with the arms and torso of a weightlifter, he had an "up and
at 'em" style that made him a tremendous box office attraction.
He leapt into prominence by "flattening" all opposition in a Port
novices' competition in the early '20's.
The preliminary rounds and semi-finals had taken place at the R.N.B.
gymnasium during the morning and afternoon and I was walking across the
parade ground to witness the finals when I met the Sports Officer, Cmdr. R.
L. Burnett (now Admiral Sir Robert, C.in-C., Plymouth).
"Have you unearthed any talent among these novices?" I
asked.
"We have indeed," said the Commander, "a lad named Ingram in the 9-stone
event. Watch him; he's a regular fire eater; no one has survived the
first round with him so far."
I forget the name of Ingram's opponent in the final that evening, but he was
knocked into oblivion with a smashing right hook to the jaw before the
echoes of the opening gong had died away.
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