Tom Gummer

Thomas Gummer (1894–1982) was a British middleweight and heavyweight boxer who won the British middleweight title in 1920 and went on to fight for the European title.

Born in Rotherham in 1894,^[1] Tom Gummer served as a Private (and later Corporal and Sergeant) in the York and Lancaster Regiment of the British Army,^[2] and had his first professional fight in 1914. He won all of his fights (at least eleven) that year, and his first two of 1915, including a victory over former British heavyweight champion "Iron" Hague by knockout with three seconds of the final round remaining.^[3][4] A planned fight in July 1914 against David Cohen (aka Dick Simmonds) resulted in a court case after Cohen took payment for the fight but then disappeared after seeing Gummer and becoming "nervous and frightened".^[5] Gummer suffered his first defeat to Gus Platts in August 1915, at which time Gummer was a heavyweight and Platts a welterweight and over 2 stones lighter, and his second to Harry Curzon in November.^[6]

In 1919 he faced both Platts and Curzon again, and won both fights.^[7]

He got his first British title shot in March 1920 against Jim Sullivan after reigning champion Pat O'Keeffe retired from boxing; Gummer won after Sullivan retired in the 14th round.^[8] He followed this with a win over Bandsman Jack Blake and a draw with Herbert Crossley before fighting Ercole Balzac for the European middleweight title in Paris in December 1920; Gummer was knocked out in the ninth round.^[9]

He had a second shot at the European title in March 1921 against Gus Platts, a fight in which Gummer was also defending his British title; Gummer retired in the sixth round, losing his title.^[10]

Gummer's final fight was against Ted Kid Lewis in February 1922 at The Dome in Brighton; Intended as a fight for Lewis's British middleweight title, it was fought as a non-title catchweight bout after Gummer failed to make the weight; Lewis knocked Gummer out in the first round.^[11]

After retiring from boxing, Gummer played football for Rotherham Eastwood in the 1920s and worked as a boxing referee between the late 1920s and the 1940s.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Tom Gummer married Myra McMahon and they had four children together.^[1] He died in Rotherham in 1982.^[1]

• Tom Gummer's boxing record, boxinghistory.org
• Boxing record for Tom Gummer from BoxRec (registration required)