BRIAN DONALD George Parkes - born Parker in Dundee in 1920 - is now almost forgotten but this flyweight boxer with the big heart was world-rated by the prestigious American boxing magazine The Ring, as the world's fifth-best eight stone boxer in 1944.

The Dundee into which George Parker - who fought under the nom du ring "Parkes" - was born was not only famed for jute, jam and journalism. The city's entry into what became its golden age of professional boxing from 1920-48 coincided with the young Parkes growing up with his boxing-mad elder brother, Frankie, in the Lochee district.

This was then also the city of news-vendor turned top Scottish boxing promoter George P Grant, who would promote Scotland's first post-Second World War world title fight at Hampden Park in 1946, featuring a man whom Frank Parkes had already defeated in the ring, Liverpudlian Joe Curran.

This was a Depression-hit city that spawned boxing booths at Gussie Park and great Dundee boxers with whom the young Parkes socialised, watched closely and even sparred with on occasion. Legendary boxers such as flyweight Freddie Tennant and British and Empire bantamweight champion Jim Brady, who - like his Dundonian contemporary Parkes - would almost certainly have challenged for a world title but for the intervention of war in 1939.

For the young Parkes and brother Frankie, who would manage his career, boxing was a welcome and more glamorous alternative to the daily drudgery of the jute mill where the young Parkes once toiled.

Parkes launched his professional ring career on New Year's day 1943 in his home town's Caird Hall where the Dundonian debutant won when his opponent, Tony Roberts, was disqualified for punching low.

Three weeks later and a clash in Glasgow's Kelvin Hall against the tough Welsh miner, Norman Lewis, ended in a draw, a hugely impressive achievement for Parkes given that he was having only his second paid fight and Lewis was a veteran of more than 50 bouts.

But it was Parkes's third ring victory - against future world title challenger Joe Curran - that made boxing critics sit up and take notice of Parkes's potential.

What made this win so significant was that Curran had fought no fewer than 108 pro contests in contrast to Parkes's scanty total of three bouts when the rising Dundonian ringman beat Curran on points in April 1943 at the Caird Hall.

An accomplished boxer with a flashing jab and smart ring moves, George Parkes's lack of a devastating finishing punch was the biggest missing factor in his pro career.

Still, he recorded wins against championship-class flyweights such as Edinburgh's Johnny Summers and Hugh Cameron.

However, a dip in form from 1945-46 probably explains why Parkes did not receive the call from his friend and Dundee boxing promoter, George P Grant, in 1946 to confront Glasgow-based world flyweight champion Jackie Paterson for the latter's world title at Hampden Park.

Similarly, a late career surge which brought Parkes back to leading contender status was aborted by severe foot problems that saw him quit on medical advice after his final bout in Glasgow in 1947.

Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Parkes had married his sweetheart, Betty, in 1940, in a union that would last 66 years and produce five children.

Nor were George Parkes, or brother Frankie, lost to boxing completely.

While George worked in the construction industry, he and Frank ran amateur boxing clubs in Dundee.

A caring family man, few were suprised when Parkes subsequently became a care worker with the elderly in his native city until his retiral in 1980.

George Parkes is survived by his wife, five children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.