Ringside Report Looks Back at British Amateur Boxer Harry Dunn (1906 -1978)

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

A year or so ago, as I looked over the various boxers I had brought to the fore for Ringside Report of the past. I questioned my own methods of deciding who to write about. Random fighters, boxers I liked, those I read about during the week which intrigued me or just a selection of names plucked from Google? It was all the above as I responded to all of them, finding fighters I admired were worthy of my intrigue and attention, or who had made a headline or two: then I became fascinated by their story or their journey.

But then, I started to consider why these things were the case – why it was that certain fighters made the cut whilst others fell away from my focus. It was then I hit upon the idea of looking at the Olympics and wondering what had happened to the many boxers who got to the Olympics, fought for their country and went on to do what in the sport? For some, professional and world honors, others extended service for their sport as they became trainers and managers and many others for whom the sport became a distant memory and they settled into “civilian” life.

There were quite a few for whom there was little by way of any record. I considered skipping them and moving on to the ones for whom there was a more decent digital and print based footprint but found myself questioning why. Why was it that an Olympian was worth less of my gaze and attention – there is no good reason – than a fighter who went on to fame or infamy? My thinking drew my attention to the fact that many of these Olympians made their mark because of a time in the past when boxing was not just a noble art, but emerged from institutions which supported them and gave them their opportunity and were the stars. So, by ignoring the fighters, I was ignoring the way that clubs, amateur gyms and the people behind them, who were the true heroes, the real stars and the greatest part of anyone’s story, made their indelible mark.

And so, I came upon Harry Dunn, born in 1906, passed away in 1978 at the tender age of 71. Dunn was Great Britain’s welterweight representative at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.
Boxing out of Lynn Amateur Boxing Club (ABC), Dunn is one of 13 Lynn boxers to have competed at the Olympics. Of the years we know about from his amateur activity – only three – he made some mark. He was the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) champion in 1927. In that fascinating three years, Dunn, in 1927, beat W. Marlow (Polytechnic Club) for the ABA title, lost it the following year to Harry Bone, a police officer by trade, and appeared in the Olympics in 1928. There, he got a bye in the first round, then lost to the Italian Romano Caneva in the second. Caneva, the European 1927 welterweight champion, then went on to lose to the New Zealander and eventual gold medalist, Ted Morgan. Caneva went on to professionally fight 50 times in mainland Europe, never managing to hit the heights in the pro game he had managed in the amateurs. Morgan won that gold with a dislocated knuckle! Though born in London, he had emigrated to New Zealand when only one year old and became the first New Zealander to win a gold at an Olympics. In 1929, Dunn then traveled to Dublin to represent England in an international against Ireland.

Dunn’s pedigree and his start came through one of, if not the oldest ABCs in the UK. Lynn Athletic Club. Based in South East London, it has a proud history stretching back over a century to when it was founded in a London café in 1892. The rules, according to journalist, Emily Shipp who wrote warmly about the club when interviewing various subjects there is: “No drugs, no knives, no guns”.

And nobody is allowed to break the rules.

Longevity is obviously down to the passing of the torch from generations to generations. There are members who have been there for a while and as they age, their responsibilities mature. As Shipp noted in an interview with the then chair of the club, in 2014, Geoff Born, he was the epitome of that: at the time, the longest serving member, started aged 9 in 1944, and was a schoolboy’s lightweight champion three times in the Southwark Schoolboy Championships, managing to get to national semi-finals. His expressed motto in the interview was: “Once a Lynn member, you’re always a Lynn member; no one’s bigger than the Lynn. We always say that.” It was what he said thereafter that strikes a chord, not just with me, but I am sure with every other boxing club in this, and many other countries. “This may be amateur boxing but days, months, years of training go into this. It becomes your life and, if you keep with it, soon enough it becomes a place to belong. The bond with the club is obvious; you feel it when you walk in and you see it in the members who stay back to chat and catch up.”

By the time that Harry Dunn was representing the club, Lynn was, according to Boxing Magazine, the largest boxing club in London with 200 members. There are many who thought it was the biggest in Great Britain. We shall never really know. And like Dunn’s career before and after the Olympics, mystery may shroud it.

Before Dunn was to represent the club it had already had Olympic success. In 1908 R.K Gunn brought back a gold medal. Much like anyone’s boxing career the Lynn has had its share of troubles with it now in a venue in which it did not begin – two venues were destroyed in the Second World War, and this is the 10th place it has called home – but their current home brought its greatest threat in 2023. Whilst many clubs and gyms struggled to get past the pandemic and keep going, the Lynn seemed to manage but then found that the building in which they ran the club was in urgent need of repair. The club is run by volunteers so there was not the cash to help keep the club open.

Thankfully boxing was prepared to help out and Matchroom Chair, Eddie Hearn stepped in with a cash donation and saved the day. Why? Not just because of success they have had with multiple national titles, various professional graduates – including Danny Williams who knocked out Mike Tyson – or the Olympic pedigree. Hearn , pictured and quoted in the Southwark Gazette, the local paper, handing over a vital check, spoke of the vital service done for young people and the community: “It teaches them everything that’s lacking – discipline, respect, manners, physical and mental fitness.” Compare that with what trainer, Frank Duffett was quoted as saying in 1979: “It’s nice to develop a Champion but I found the greatest satisfaction was watching kids, who would otherwise not be decent citizens, change through their involvement with the club and with boxing”.

And into that walked a young Harry Dunn, who afterwards walked into an Olympic ring, returned, fought for his country and showed what it meant to be a representative of his club, his community and himself. That the Lynn was nearly lost is a travesty, but the travesty is that many boxing clubs face closure every single day. That they do what they do is testimony to dedication which is priceless and produces the types of Olympian that can inspire the young, the vulnerable and the traumatized. And for that may we all be truly grateful.

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