EIGHT days after beating Jackie Brown, in Manchester, in September 1935, to become the world, European and British flyweight champion, Benny Lynch had an unusual promotional task at Glasgow’s Metropole Theatre.
The Glasgow Herald, the Evening Times and The Bulletin newspaper had the previous month launched the Outram Press Wireless Fund, the aim of which was to equip Scottish hospitals with “modern radio installations.” For 20 shillings, a hospital bed could be fitted with earphones; for 500, an entire ward could be equipped.
At the time that Lynch took to the stage, on September 17, the fund stood at 153,844 shillings (the latest donation, a cheque for 105 shillings, had been sent by the Countess Cawdor, up in Nairn). The target was 200,000 shillings by the end of that month. It was reached with ease, and the papers then told their readers that the fund was now aiming for 330,000 shillings “before our task is complete.”
A collection was taken at the Metropole, an appeal being made by the theatre manager, Mr W. Reeves. Lynch added some lustre to the proceedings, and he was amused to meet one of the female stage performers that night, who came on as Dr Radio, “with a wireless receiving set on her shoulders and a doctor’s bag in her hand,” the paper reported. The boxer was presented with a lacquered cigarette case by Mr Reeves’s five-year-old son.
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