Pat Palmer: Unsung Hero of British Boxing
Pat Palmer was a Battersea flyweight boxer who won amateur and professional honors. He won national amateur honors, a major international gold medal and the Southern Area professional flyweight title. His best-known bout came in 1936 against Britain’s reigning champion, Benny Lynch.
Amateur champion and 1934 Games gold medalist
Palmer boxed for Battersea & Shexgar ABC. England Boxing’s record of the 1934 National Elite Championships lists him as the 51-kilogram champion. Later that year, he represented England in the flyweight division at the British Empire Games in London. The England Boxing Commonwealth Games results record a gold medal for Palmer.
Southern Area professional champion
Palmer boxed professionally from 1935 to 1948. The boxing-history archive, compiled by historians Miles Templeton and Richard Ireland, lists 101 contests and identifies him as Southern Area flyweight champion from 1935 to 1937. He also challenged for the British flyweight title in 1936.
On September 16, 1936, Palmer challenged Benny Lynch at Shawfield Park in Glasgow. Lynch stopped him in the eighth round while defending the British, European and world flyweight titles. The contemporary-record-based Benny Lynch bout archive records the result and identifies Palmer as the Southern Area champion.
What the record establishes
The available historical records support Palmer’s achievements in amateur flyweight boxing and his professional run in the same division. This profile is limited to achievements that can be checked against the cited records.
About the video
The video embed from the original post is retained below. Its available title and metadata do not establish that it shows Pat Palmer or any of the documented bouts described here.
Sources
Tags
Boxing, Boxing History
