A highly skilled boxer, with an educated left hand and a slippery defence that made him difficult to hit, his big break came in 1925, when he defeated Roland Todd, the reigning British Middleweight Champion, in two non-title bouts.
The wins should have automatically earned him the right to a title contest, but the British Boxing Board of Control forbade such a match, stating that it would breach Rule 24 of its code.
The rule, which was backed in 1911 by the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill and was operated by the board until 1948, stated title fight contestants “needed to have been born of white parents”.
His considerable boxing talents saw him go on to record almost 100 victories, some against world champions, but the rule meant he was never given a shot at a championship belt.
