Gunner Boy

I STARTED following boxing seriously in 1966, and since then I’ve come across references to it in some unlikely places – but none more surprising, surely, than my local residents’ newsletter, the Selsdon Gazette! But there it was, among the recipes and the Council notes – an article on Gunner James Moir, British heavyweight champion between 1906 and 1909.

I was intrigued. I had no idea Moir was connected with Selsdon (part of South Croydon). Born in Lambeth, he had later moved as far south as Brixton, but that was all. Croydon is generally referred to as “South London,” much to the annoyance of those who live there – it’s actually still in Surrey, and Selsdon, along with neighbouring borough Sanderstead, is getting on for the Kent border. So why was the Gazette featuring a story on him? The answer quickly became clear – Moir’s son Lionel (Lon), the youngest (and then sole survivor) of his 13 children (born February 1924) – had been living in the area since the Sixties.

I read on. When I saw the address I nearly howled – at one time we had been living just a few doors apart, and in almost 10 years I’d had no inkling of it. I felt I just had to make contact. A letter, I reckoned, would be preferable to a phone-call – he was entitled to his privacy, and if he chose not to answer then clearly he wouldn’t have taken kindly to being phoned either.

I posted the letter at tea-time. About 10.30 the next morning, the phone rang. “Mr Euan-Smith? My name’s Moir.” We had a long chat, and Lon filled me in with a lot of information on his father’s life and career, including several points the article had barely touched on. Then came the words