JIMMY WILDE

Jimmy Wilde's birth certificate states that he was born in the Taff Bargoed Valley community of Pentwyn Deintyr) (now known as the Graig), Quakers Yard, Treharris, Wales, in the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil.

His parents later moved to the village of Tylorstown in the Rhondda Valley when Wilde was around six years old. In the 1901 census eight year old William James Wilde, his parents and his three sisters were all recorded as speaking only Welsh. His father was a coal miner and Jimmy later worked in the pits himself, being small enough to crawl through gullies impassable to most of his colleagues.

He started boxing at the age of 16 in fairground boxing booths, where crowds were amazed by his toughness and ability to knock down much larger opponents, most of whom were local men weighing around 200 lbs.

In 1910, Wilde married his wife Elizabeth and was a father the same year. He left Tylorstown Colliery in 1913.

In the early 1930s Wilde's son David had a short career in professional boxing without any great success. He gave up boxing to run a hairdressers in north London.

In the 1930s Wilde lived in Hocroft Court, Cricklewood, from where almost all of his boxing trophies and medals were stolen in a 1936 burglary. He became a boxing referee, including in 1936 refereeing every bout of a boxing tournament at the Hastings Pier Pavilion and he wrote a weekly boxing column in the News of the World for two decades.

In December 1936 he was injured after being thrown from his car when it collided with a van near Hampstead and suffered severe concussion.

After the War Wilde lived in Cadoxton, Barry, South Wales.

In 1960 Wilde suffered facial injuries after being mugged at a train station in Cardiff. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1967,and two years later Wilde, who was suffering from Diabetes and Dementia died at Whitchurch Hospital.