Frederick Grace (29 February 1884 – 23 July 1964) was a

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight ...

boxer. He fought as Fred Grace and at the 1908 Olympic Games he became Olympic champion, defeating Matt Wells along the way. He also became the British and European amateur champion.

Biography

Born in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

, he first became a boxer at Eton Mission Boxing Club. Making use of the facilities provided by Eton Mission, he also became proficient on the parallel bars. In his early 20s, Fred incurred serious damage to his knee after an incident on his motorcycle. Fred declined the surgeon's advice to amputate and determined to regain his fitness. Subsequently, from that time to the Olympics in 1908 he never figured in any title challenges. After the Games, Grace went on to win four Amateur Boxing Association British lightweight titles between 1909 and 1920, when boxing out of the Eton Mission ABC and Eton Boys BC respectively. However, whilst in his prime, boxing was banned from the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and WW1 canceled out the Olympics of 1916, therefore Grace was unable to defend his title. By 1920 he was 36 years old and at the Olympics in Antwerp he won just one bout in the lightweight class before being eliminated by the eventual winner of the title,

Samuel Mosberg Samuel A. Mossberg or Mosberg (June 14, 1896 – August 30, 1967) was an American lightweight professional boxing, boxer who competed in the early 1920s. He was managed by Billy Gibson and Jack Bulger for most of his professional career. Amateu ...

, of the US. Grace worked as a heating engineer for most of his life and retired in 1949. He died on 23 July 1964 at Ilford,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, aged 80, after being struck by a car while out walking.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grace, Frederick 1884 births 1964 deaths English male boxers Lightweight boxers English Olympic medallists Olympic boxers for Great Britain Boxers at the 1908 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Sportspeople from Edmonton, London Olympic medalists in boxing Road incident deaths in London Medalists at the 1908 Summer Olympics Boxers from Greater London England Boxing champions