Boxer.

 

Born: July 21, 1937;

Died: February 9, 2015.

Tommy McGuinness, who has died aged 77, was a celebrated Scottish internationalist amateur welterweight boxer who built up a cult television following in the 1950s and 60s among Scottish viewers who watched weekly televised amateur boxing shows.

He was born in one of Scotland's most historically iconic boxing towns, Craigneuk in Lanarkshire, which produced Scotland's only middleweight ever to fight for a world title, Tommy Milligan. Scotland's first ever British light heavyweight champion, Chic Calderwood, was also born there.

Many other great Scottish amateur and pro champions came from Craigneuk and its environs, but McGuinness's father had an unusual motivation for enlisting his son in the now defunct Wishaw Priory Amateur boxing club. Many youngsters are sent to boxing clubs to calm their youthful flamboyance and aggression and channel it in a socially productive direction.

However, it was McGuinness's painful natural shyness and lifelong capacity for self-effacement that made his father enrol him in the Priory ABC. As is sometime the case with some naturally shy youths, the young Tom discovered that he was fluent in the language of boxing.

Consequently, after joining the more famed Lanarkshire Welfare ABC, McGuinness won a clutch of junior Western District and Scottish national titles with a brand of confident, fierce combativeness. Indeed, such was the impact of the young McGuinness on local and national Scottish amateur boxing that he attracted the admiration of Joe Aitchison of Dalmarnock who was in the top three of Caledonian boxing coaches having worked with many champions.

McGuinness flourished at Aitchison's Dalmarnock club in Glasgow's east end, honing his skill and power sparring with the likes of world-rated bantamweight Billy Rafferty.

Working at his chosen trade as bricklayer also toughened McGuinness who not only won Scottish Senior titles at welterweight but also became a big favourite for his all-action, big-hitting style on TV boxing shows where he rubbed shoulders with such popular luminaries as Dick McTaggart and Bobby Keddie.

But as McGuinness's brother Peter pointed out, the popularity and celebrity his sibling's style brought him did nothing to alter his natural shyness which remained a hallmark of his character.

In 1959, he was called up for national service with future 1962 Perth Australia Commonwealth Games featherweight gold medal winner, John McDermott who recalled he and McGuinness joining the Royal Scots regiment on the same day and boxing for the regiment all over Europe.

"Tom was outstanding when we - the Royal Scots regimental boxing team - won the British Army on the Rhine Army boxing championships by seeing off other regiments' boxers including many top English, Welsh and Irish pro and amateur boxers," said McDermott. ''Tom was outstanding but then I wasn't surprised as he had boxed for Scotland in the 1958 Commonwealth Games.''

McGuinness had also boxed for Scotland in the 1957 European championships in Prague and it took opponents of the quality of Irishman Freddie Tiedt to beat the Craigneuk man.

Like his great Scottish amateur boxing team mate Dick McTaggart, McGuinness scorned joining the paid ranks, although enquiries and offers were made by various professional boxing managers. So, after his boxing career ended, he worked as a bricklayer before latterly working as a taxi driver until his retirement.

He also lived quietly with his father until the latter's death in 1989 after which he lived with his partner, Mary Black,who survives him. He is also survived by his two brothers, both of whom also boxed.

McGuinness proved, in an illustrious amateur boxing career, that it is possible to win titles without personal flamboyance or self advertisement, which he personally, assiduously, avoided throughout his life.

BRIAN DONALD