The Turpins - Britain's greatest ever boxing brothers?

BoxRec News correspondent Jon Briggs takes a trip down memory lane and looks back on the remarkable careers of the Turpin brothers who enjoyed three decades of success between the 1930s and the 1960s

For an amazing twenty seven years the Turpin brothers were represented as fighters in the professional boxing world. The likeable bunch from Leamington in Warwickshire had varying degrees of success during their careers. The highlight has to be Randy’s famous world title victory over Sugar Ray Robinson in London 1951.

Between 1937 and 1964, at least one of the three brothers was active as a professional boxer. Jackie, Dick and Randy notched up an impressive total of 302 fights including 225 victories. They liked to get the job done early with 114 wins coming by way of knockout.

The Turpin’s were born to a West Indian father who stowed away to Britain to join the army during the First World War, and a white mother from the midlands. Boxing was a love all three brothers shared and they started to learn their trade in a home-made backstreet gym.

The elder of the three lads, Dick Turpin, actually lost his first pro fight in a ten rounder against Jimmy Griffiths although he did go onto reverse the result in a rematch a couple of weeks later. Over the course of the next nine years, which did include a six year break due to national service, he built his record up to a respectable 67-13-5 before his big chance came.

In 1948 Dick’s first title opportunity came in the form of a Commonwealth belt that was held by New Zealander Richard Bos Murphy. Dick didn’t waste his big chance and KO’d Murphy in the first round. 1948 was a great year for Dick; in his next fight a month later he beat the 72-5 British middleweight champion Vince Hawkins over 15 rounds to claim that belt, too.

Previous to winning the British belt from Hawkins, Dick’s younger brother Randy Turpin had beaten Hawkins in a non title affair. After picking up two belts in 1948 Dick got himself in line for a shot at the European middleweight belt. Italian Tiberio Mitri stood in the way of him landing his title shot Turpin had to face him in a final eliminator at the Royal Albert hall. The fight was scored a draw and they had to do it all over again, this time in Italy.The second fight was another close encounter which saw Dick lose a 12 round decision.

This reversal signalled the beginning of the end of Dick's career. He did defend his British and Commonwealth belts once in front of 30,000 at St Andrews football stadium in 1949 against Albert Finch. This was Dick's last big win. He lost both his titles and in 1950 Dick’s career ended after suffering stoppages in his last two outings. He signed off with a record of 77-20-6 after thirteen years of fighting, but Dick was not finished with boxing, he later went on to train his younger brother Randy.

Middle brother Jackie Turpin campaigned throughout his career as a featherweight. During his eight-year career he managed to compete in 124 bouts (if you like stats it’s an average of 15.5 a year). After eight fights Jackie was 4-4, this record did not dampen his passion for the sport as he kept pushing him self harder.

In 1947 Jackie climbed into the ring an impressive 28 times, winning 23, losing four and a solitary draw. Turpin had to wait until 1953 for his title shot; he contested the midlands area featherweight title against Tommy Higgins. Turpin picked up the belt by way of a points decision over 12 rounds.

Was winning that belt the highlight of Jackie’s career? Or could it have been fighting at Madison Square Gardens in New York?

Jackie did just that on his brother Randy’s undercard in 1953. He beat Joe Paniagua on points over six rounds to cap off a wonderful night for Jackie. He was by all accounts at one time Britain’s busiest featherweight. He described himself as a club fighter, and he was a good one. His brothers may have been more successful - Dick becoming the first black man to win a Lonsdale Belt and Randolph of course becoming world champion - but Jackie was not jealous, he was extremely proud of his brothers.

Jackie retired on 82-34-8 (his record varies by a few wins from different sources), but like his elder brother Dick, he wanted to stay on the boxing scene. He stayed involved by training both amateur and professional boxers at the St Peters Boxing club in Leamington. He also started up an amateur boxing club in Woking where he continued to train young fighters. Jackie Turpin retired from training boxers in 2004 when he was aged 79. Jackie dedicated his life to Boxing and will always be remembered by the people fortunate enough to have worked with him.

Out of the three brothers, Randy Turpin scored the biggest and most memorable win. He took on the mighty Sugar Ray Robinson in July 1951. Robinson went back over the pond empty handed that night as Randy clinched the world middleweight title by way of a 15 round decision.

Randy was known as “The Licker” but this nickname didn't come from his boxing exploits. It came from the Turpin boys messing about in their younger days; when Randy said “Don’t take advantage of me because, because I'm the lickel’ist” he was trying to say little'est from then on the family always called him Licker.

At a young age it was apparent that Randy had something special. Elder brother Dick turned pro when Randy was nine years -old and Randy obviously liked what he saw and joined the Leamington boys club when he was 12. The club was run by John 'Gerry' Gibbs, a police inspector, who soon saw the promise in Randy. Randy had 100 amateur contests, winning 95. He achieved a unique double in 1945 by winning both the junior 147lb championship and the senior ABA Welterweight championship. This made Randy the youngest ever ABA champion.

Randy turned pro in 1946 and he started fast, notching up 15 wins in the first year. He also took the traditional route to the top. He won the British middleweight title in 1950 with a fifth round KO over Albert Finch. Then in February 1951 he claimed the vacant European belt beating Dutch fighter Luc Van Dam in the first round.

By now Randy was knocking on the door of a world title shot. He did not stay inactive to protect his world ranking after his European title victory in February 1951, amazingly squeezing in another four fights before his eventual world title shot in July 1951. Randy won all these four fights by stoppage, Watch out Robinson, this lad is on a mission!

Fight night came around and British fans got their first look at Robinson in the flesh, most thought that Robinson would have enough to win and he was also fancied by the bookies. Randy had other ideas.

Randy was the early aggressor in the fight, he wanted to pressure Robinson and refused to let the American find his rhythm. As the rounds went by Turpin took control of the fight and Robinson was cut in round seven. Turpin never let up and won a 15 round points decision.

After the fight, Robinson made no excuses: “You were real good. I have no alibis. I was beaten by a better man," the boxing legend said in tribute to Turpin's remarkable triumph.The crowd in Earls Court, London went crazy and saluted their new world champion with several verses of “For he’s a jolly good fellow” This famous win made Turpin the first British middleweight champion since Bob Fitzsimons in 1894.

Unfortunately, Randy didn’t hold the title for long, 64 days in fact. The rematch saw more of the same fighting spirit coming from Turpin who was doing well until he opened a bad cut over Robinson’s right eye which spurred the former champion to go all out for a knock out. After mounting a strong surge, Robinson claimed back his title with by forcing a tenth round stoppage.

Turpin got back on the title hunt in 1952 picking up the British and Commonwealth titles by knocking out Don Cockell in 11 rounds. Randy secured another shot at the world middleweight crown which meant another trip to Madison Square Garden. This time he faced American Bobo Olsen who beat Turpin over the 15 round distance.

Later in his career Turpin moved up in weight to try his luck at light-heavyweight. He managed to pick up the British belt in 1956 and defended in 1957. His career started to slow down and he eventually retired from the ring in 1958 only to make a successful comeback in 1963. His last ever fight was a KO win in1964 at a venue in Malta.

However, In a real sad ending to a great success story, Randy committed suicide in 1966. He fell on hard times financially after his retirement from fighting, along with struggling to find a purpose outside of boxing, this was one of the contributing factors to his untimely death.

As you can tell from reading this piece, the Turpin brothers were boxing through and through. But this was not it for the Turpin family. In the 1970’s it was the turn of the next generation. Yes, there were Turpin Juniors on the pro circuit. Jackie and Randy juniors both had a go. The new generation were not as successful as their seniors but nevertheless it make’s the history of the famous Turpin family even more intriguing.