House where Randolph Turpin was born and lived, Leamington.
Photo by Benjamin Earl.
Randolph Turpin and the Mayor on the Town Hall balcony, Leamington Spa. 1951.
Warwickshire County Record Office Reference PH(N) 600/291/11.
Statue of Randolph Turpin in Market Square, Warwick.
Photo by Benjamin Earl.
Turpin is one of Leamington’s more famous sporting sons, famous for his sensational triumph over the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson in 1951. This saw him become World Middleweight Champion although his reign was brief, being defeated in the rematch 64 days later. Turpin never reached those heights again although he came close, losing to Bobo Olson in a contest for the now vacant Middleweight title.
Weighed down by money troubles after retiring, Turpin took his own life in 1966. A statue of him can be seen in Market Square, Warwick.
Comments
There is an interesting article on the Leamington History Group web page on Randolph http://www.leamingtonhistory.co.uk/?p=1834
well worth a read
He loved Llandudno and bought a pub on the Great Orme which still contains Turpin memorabilia!
When I was a paper boy at Paul’s newsagents in Tavistock street, I used to deliver his Coventry Evening Telegraph to him in his cafe at the top of Tavistock street. Always the perfect gentleman and always gave me a nice tip at Christmas time!
The Leamington History group article has an inaccurate account of where the Turpin brothers trained. The Nelson Gym was in the George Nelson Dale factory, in a part of the building now demolished. It was started by my father, the late Arthur Batty an employee of Alderman Nelson.
I went to school with Randolph Turpin’s niece, the other kids were very impressed that her Uncle was Randolph Turpin. She never spoke about it, but we knew. We had stepped classrooms and gas lighting, which was very unusual for my generation. We had a lighting monitor, she must have only been about 11, who used to come with a taper on the end of a pole. It was more like the century before.
I was really happy at that school!
Real opportunity missed to make links to other aspects of local black history.
Hi Angela, thanks for your comment. It goes without saying a fuller history of Randolph Turpin would be welcomed by this site, as indeed we’d welcome articles on local black history 🙂
My grandmother taught at Westgate School in Warwick. According to my father she taught the Turpin brothers. She certainly taught there at that time. Apparently she said that they were well behaved and a pleasure to teach. Which coming from her was certainly a compliment!
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