Born to Box by Alex Daley

Author:Alex Daley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2018-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

21

KO Schulze

‘The boy had no vanity. Fame was to him so far a mere bubble; fighting he frankly loved for fighting’s sake. Too young at 16 years and four months to think in banking accounts, this Jackie Coogan of pugilism just goes on boxing as other boys go to school or to business.’19

Clyde Foster writing about Pat in the Evening Standard, 12 August 1929

WITH his frequent top-line fights, Pat was earning very good money by working-class standards. If he had chosen or had the freedom to enjoy it, his celebrity status and bank balance would have afforded him quite a social life.

At a similar age, though not then as famous as Pat, Kid Berg had made a name for himself round the London rings and fully capitalised. As a popular boxer he found the doors of the West End’s clubs, restaurants and bars suddenly opened wide for him.

With pockets stuffed full of cash, he hung out at establishments like the Savoy, The 43 Club, The Ivy and the Kit Kat Club until the early hours, dancing to jazz and picking up girls before sauntering home to east London. For the young Berg, life outside the ring seemed to be a perpetual parade of wine, women and song. Pat, though, was different.

The self-control and sacrifices needed for boxing had been ingrained in him from the age of nine. There was no room for teenage high jinks in the Professor’s regime. If ever he were tempted to venture into the West End at night, the thought of the scolding he would get from Newton if the old man found out would surely have dampened the idea. Boxing, anyway, was his raison d’ être. His goal was to be champion of the world, and anything that might interfere with that he could do without.

When he found time to socialise, Pat mostly mixed with a close circle of friends, unconnected with boxing. His cousins Leonard and Davey John Daley – to whom he was related both maternally and paternally (his father’s brother, it will be remembered, married his mother’s sister) – were his closest pals. Two other good friends were Mike McGrath and a lad called ‘Mac’, who would die in the Second World War serving in the RAF.

There was little time for girls. But in around 1930, an aristocratic young lady took a shine to the young boxer. A year younger than Pat, Miss Anita Leslie was the only daughter of Sir Shane Leslie, a member of the landed gentry and first cousin to Sir Winston Churchill. The main Leslie family home was a castle in Ireland, but they also owned a house at 10 Talbot Square in Bayswater, just a stone’s throw from Pat’s Hatton Street home.

As a teenager, Anita had a rebellious streak and, unbeknown to her parents, was an avid boxing fan. According to his younger brother Ken, Pat brought Miss Leslie back to the family home several times and took her on trips to the cinema.

Ordinarily, a lad of

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