Brian Anderson (British Boxer)

Brian Anderson (born 9 July 1961) is a British former boxer who was British middleweight champion between 1986 and 1987. Since retiring from boxing he has worked for Her Majesty's Prison Service.

Early life

Born in Sheffield in 1961 to Jamaican-born parents, Anderson took up boxing after getting into trouble and being taken at the age of 13 by a social worker to the Croft House youth club, which had a boxing gym.Hubbard, Alan (2006)
Boxing: Jailhouse Rocky: Ex-champion Anderson breaks new ground as first black prison chief
, ''The Independent'', 31 December 2006. Retrieved 16 March 2015 At school he was taught PE by Howard Wilkinson and ran in the same cross-country running team as Sebastian Coe. Realising he had a talent for boxing he focused his energies on the sport and represented England at amateur level four years later. On a trip to Germany with the England team he met Brendan Ingle and later joined Ingle's St. Thomas's gym in Wincobank.

Career

Boxing

Anderson began his professional career in 1980. His first chance to earn an opportunity to fight for the British Title was unsuccessful when he lost to Prince Rodney in a final eliminator for the British light middleweight title in March 1983; Rodney stopped Anderson in the fifth round.

For a brief period Anderson moved up to middleweight beating Jimmy Ellis and in May 1983 to win the Central Area middleweight title. He made a successful defence of the title in May 1984 against Sammy Brennan.

In November 1984 he again dropped down to light middleweight to face Chris Pyatt in a final eliminator for the British title; Pyatt won on points.

He made a second defence of his Central Area title in February 1986 against Steve Johnson. The fight was also a final eliminator for the British Middleweight Title. In October got his first shot at a British title when he faced Tony Burke for the vacant middleweight title. The title had been vacated by Anderson's friend and gym mate Herol Bomber Graham. Anderson stopped Burke in the eighth round to take the title. In September 1987 Anderson defended the British title against Tony Sibson at the Royal Albert Hall with Sibson's commonwealth title also at stake. Sibson stopped Anderson in the seventh round. This proved to be Anderson's final fight.

Prison official

After retiring from boxing, Anderson became a referee and went on to train as a probation officer and study at Huddersfield Polytechnic, qualifying in 1988.Brian Anderson, Doncaster Prison
", ''Ethos'', August 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2015 He went on to work in the Prison Service as the country's first anti-bullying officer in 1994. He told reporter Alan Hubbard of UK newspaper ''The Independent'', "The then chief inspector of prisons, Sir David Ramsbottom, seemed to like what we were doing. I told him I had always wanted to be some kind of social reformer and it was he who suggested that I should aim to become a prison governor. I found there was a graduate scheme and managed to get on it – the first black candidate to do so, in September 1997".

In 2006 Anderson became only the second black prison chief in the UK, taking charge of the Serco-run HM Prison Doncaster. Following his appointment he told the BBC
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