Trip to Glasgow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56ozgoDCepY On Wednesday 14th August Press Officer Liam Bolland and Marketing Manager Jorden Guest took a trip to Glasgow to visit the People's Palace museum. They visited Kevin Kerrigan, Curator of the Benny Lynch display at the museum, to show the Benny Lynch trophy that is coming up for auction in September. Benny Lynch was born and raised in Glasgow. He learnt how to box in carnival booths in the west of Scotland during the great depression. He made his professional debut in 1931, and at only 23-years-old, Lynch won the fight against Small Montana on points, being awarded the Lord Lonsdale trophy (pictured below). The trophy was later presented to Alfred L Ellsworth, steward of the area council in the British Boxing Board of Control. It was presented by many of his friends on the occasion of his services to Hairmyres Hospital. Ellsworth attained his target of over £5,000 collected within 18 months for various charities, dated 16th January 1944. Lonsdale trophy awarded to Benny Lynch in 1937. The trophy will be going under the hammer during Fellows’ Antiques, Silver, & Collectables sale, on Monday 16th September. Created by Mappin & Webb, and hallmarked 1936, the 9ct gold trophy is an extraordinary piece of boxing history. With an estimate of £5,000 - £8,000, the trophy is one of the highlight antiques to go under the hammer at Fellows this year. Kevin Kerrigan has been researching Benny Lynch to acquire items to be placed at the People's Palace in Glasgow. Kevin said: "Benny Lynch was our first official Scottish boxing world champion. He was from a very deprived area of the city (the Gorbals) and came from nothing to be champion of the world so it’s a rags to riches story, the underdog battles his way to the top. The display at the People's Palace has taken around three years to bring together. The trophy up for auction at Fellows is the one that gave the title “undisputed” world champion to Benny Lynch. He was already the World Champion from his win in 1935 against Peter Kane, however Lynch lost his next fight to Jimmy Warnock in 1936 (a non-title fight)  so it was hugely important that he won against Small Montana as the Americans had claimed Montana was the true world champion. Press Officer Liam Bolland with Curator Kevin Kerrigan "The display at the People's Palace is very much a community display, which means the people of Glasgow have donated objects (treasured family heirlooms) to the exhibition as the museum does not actually hold that much relating to Benny. After he retired, his trophies, medals, and personal items were scattered to the four winds. Some of it was sold by him to survive, other pieces were lost and some of it was even stolen (his wife had a lock up that was broken into) so it took a big effort to bring some of this material back together." The People's Palace are still working to collect and display items relating to Benny Lynch and their exhibition at the Peoples Palace in Glasgow will be on until 2020. The Antiques, Silver & Collectables sale will take place on Monday 16th September, viewing dates can be seen below: