PCram

Published at 01:00, Friday, 16 September 2005

NEW evidence suggests that Jimmy Carruthers, now regarded as Australia’s greatest boxer, came from a Workington family.

Carruthers, the first Australian to win a professional world title, was the son of Workington parents who emigrated according to Tim Edwards, of Bank Road, Workington, who is a distant relative .

Tim, who once owned several properties on Workington’s Marsh Side, says that Jimmy the boxer, who was born in the Sydney suburb of Paddington in 1929, was the son of a couple who lived at Havelock Road on Marsh Side. Tim’s mother was the sister of John Goss, of Workington, who married Hanna Carruthers, the aunt of Jimmy.

Carruthers died in 1990 at Narrabeen, Australia, at the age of 61.

Tim was responding to claims about the boxer’s Cumbrian connection made by Workington boxing coach Joe Stuart in last week’s Times & Star. He said: “I couldn’t now tell you the name of Jimmy Carruthers’s parents and I never met him but I can tell you without a shadow of doubt that he was in Workington in 1948 when he was a member of the Australian amateur boxing team that took part in the London Olympics.

“My sister, Dorothy McLeod, who now lives in Dumfries, and my late mother both recalled the visit and I am certain that Jimmy Carruthers’s grandmother, was still alive then and living in the substantial family home at Havelock Road.”

When Carruthers’s parents emigrated, they said goodbye to three of his siblings, according to Tim.

A brother later worked in the Barrow shipyards while two sisters, Maggie Carruthers and Hanna Goss remained in Workington.

Maggie Carruthers, who worked for the Workington haulage firm of Roseby for many years, later had a sweet shop in Wilson Street and lived in the town until her death about 10 years ago.

“I am certain of my facts about Jimmy,” said Tim.

Carruthers’s record shows that he was undefeated in the London Olympics but was pulled out of the competition after two victories because of a cut eye.

He turned professional in 1950, won the Australian bantamweight title in 1951, and the British Commonwealth and World bantamweight titles in 1952 when he defeated Vic Toweel of South Africa. He made several defences before retiring, but returned for a brief come-back in 1961. His memory is enshrined in Australia’s sporting hall of fame.

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk