The Lonsdale Belt is a boxing prize introduced by Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale, to be awarded to British boxing champions. It is still awarded to British champions today.
Lord Lonsdale organised boxing matches and was the first president of the National Sporting Club. In 1909, he introduced the Lonsdale Belt as a new trophy for the British champion at each weight division. The belts were crafted from porcelain and twenty-two carat gold, supported by red, white and blue fabric backing, and were only to be held by a fighter as long as he was British champion. However, a British champion was allowed to keep his Lonsdale Belt if he defended his title successfully twice. Later belts were made from nine carat gold rather than the original twenty-two carat. A total of 22 Lonsdale belts were issued by the National Sporting Club, and of these 20 were won outright.
The holders of the first Lonsdale belts were:-
Flyweight — Sid Smith, 1911
Bantamweight — Digger Stanley, 1910 (retained). Jim Higgins (retained), Johnny Brown (1923-1925) won the same Lonsdale belt outright. The NSC bought it back from Digger Stanley's widow after his death. Bugler Lake got one notch on it before losing to Johnny Brown in 1923. Brown went on to win it outright and retain it. His son, Edward Brown, donated this original belt to the Museum of London in 2010. It can be seen at their Docklands museum.
Featherweight — Jim Driscoll, 1910 (retained)
Lightweight — Freddie Welsh, 1909 (retained)
Welterweight — Young Joseph, 1910
Middleweight — Tom Thomas, 1909
Light-heavyweight — Dennis Haugh, 1913 (retained)
Heavyweight — Bombardier Billy Wells, 1911 (retained)
The three above belts that were not retained by the holders were eventually held and retained by Jimmy Wilde (flyweight), Johnny Basham (welterweight) and Pat O'Keefe (middleweight).
The National Sporting Club became virtually defunct in the early 1930s and lost control of the sport to the British Boxing Board of Control. The latter body began issuing Lonsdale belts from 1936 onwards.
The first holders of the B.B.B.C. belts were:-
Flyweight — Benny Lynch, 1936
Bantamweight — Johnny King, 1937
Featherweight — Johnny McGrory, 1936
Lightweight — Jimmy Walsh, 1936
Welterweight — Jake Kilrain, 1938
Middleweight — Jock McAvoy, 1937
Light-heavyweight — Jock McAvoy, 1937
Heavyweight — Tommy Farr, 1937
Henry Cooper (heavyweight) is the only man ever to win three Lonsdale belts outright. Besides Henry Cooper the following boxers have won two Lonsdale belts outright:-
Nel Tarleton (featherweight)
Ronnie Clayton (featherweight)
Peter Keenan (bantamweight)
Howard Winstone (featherweight)
Brian Curvis (welterweight)
Clinton McKenzie (light-welterweight).
In 1987 the B.B.B.C. decided no longer to award any fighter more than one belt in the same weight division. This still allows a fighter to win belts outright at two or more different weights.
The Lonsdale Belt won by Bombardier Billy Wells in 1911 is now kept at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, South East London, and is not on display to the general public.
In November 2000 the belt awarded to Randy Turpin in 1956 was auctioned for £23,000, while, in September 2011, that won by the welterweight Jack Hood in 1926, fetched £36,000. Hood, who died in 1992, had displayed the latter above the bar at the Bell public house in Tanworth-in-Arden of which he was the licensee.
Freddie Welsh (1912)
Jim Driscoll (1910)
Digger Stanley (1910)
Bombardier Billy Wells (heavyweight) (1913)
Jimmy Wilde (flyweight) (1917)
Pat O'Keefe (middleweight) (1918)
Jim Higgins (bantamweight) (1921) (outright winner in shortest time of 11 months)
Johnny Brown (bantamweight) (1923) (defended twice 1925, retained)
Jack Hood (welterweight) (1926)
Jack Petersen (heavyweight) (1935)
Nel Tarleton (outright winner of two belts in 1936 and 1945)
Ernie Roderick (welterweight) (1941)
Jackie Paterson (flyweight) (1943)
Ronnie Clayton (outright winner of two belts in 1950 and 1953)
Randolph Turpin (light-heavyweight) (1952, outright in 1956)
Peter Keenan (outright winner of two belts in 1953 and 1957)
Henry Cooper (outright winner of three belts)
Brian Curvis (outright winner of two belts in 1961 and 1964)
Howard Winstone (outright winner of two belts in 1962 and 1963)
Maurice Cullen (lightweight) (1966)
Alan Minter (middleweight) (1976)
George Feeney (1984)
Hugh Russell (1985)
Billy Hardy (bantamweight) (1989)
Robbie Regan (flyweight) (1992)
Lennox Lewis (heavyweight) (1992)
Richie Wenton (super-bantamweight) (1994 - 1996)
Ryan Rhodes (light-middleweight) (1997)
Julius Francis (heavyweight) (1999)
Michael Gomez (super featherweight) (2000)
Danny Williams (heavyweight) (2002)
Neil Sinclair (welterweight) (2003)
David Barnes (welterweight) (2004)
Michael Hunter (Super Bantamweight) (2005)
Matt Skelton (heavyweight) (2005)
Scott Dann (middleweight) (2005)
Carl Froch (super middleweight) (2006)
Ian Napa (bantamweight) (2008)
Kell Brook (welterweight) (2009)
John Murray (lightweight) (2010)
John Simpson (featherweight) (2010)
Stuart Hall (Bantamweight) (2011)
Brian Rose (Light Middleweight) (2012)
Lee Selby (featherweight) (2013)
Billy Joe Saunders (middleweight) (2014)
