Wrestling Heritage

By Graeme Cameron

A British History of Australian Wrestling
By Graeme Cameron

Part 7: HINDUS, HEROES AND HACKENSCHMIDT (Part 2)

PETER McGREGOR (1906-1911)

Peter McGregor was a Scot from Glasgow who arrived in Australia in early 1906. He came with an established reputation as a strongman and wrestler. According to reports, he held several Scottish weightlifting records and won the Scottish Weightlifting Championships three times. As a wrestler, he had defeated several established names in the UK, and faced international opponents from Germany, France and Italy, as well as Jiu Jitsu expert, Yukio Tani from Japan.

He began his Australian career in Melbourne in July 1906 in a big way, challenging Bhuttan Singh for his Australian Heavyweight title. Singh won 2-1 after going down a fall. Newspaper reports said that Singh had to resort to fouling McGregor to save his title. As it turned out, this was Singh’s final title defence before losing the title to Clarence Weber 

In 1907, McGregor stepped out of wrestling to try boxing. Despite having never done it before, he won four bouts against lesser opponents in Broken Hill and Adelaide. In later fights against more experienced opponents, he did not fare so well. South Australia was where McGregor chose to settle, living in the coastal town of Port Pirie where he worked in a mine processing plant (the town’s main industry). 

In June, he travelled to Melbourne, where he attempted to break one of William Miller’s weightlifting records, the straight arm lift from the side to shoulder level with 100-pound dumbbell. He lifted 101.5, but the judges disallowed the attempt as he used a different technique. They did, however, certify it as a record in its own right.

McGregor returned to wrestling in 1908, his most active year. In March, he again met Bhuttan Singh, this time in Broken Hill. He lost 2-0, with reports saying the Singh again employed foul tactics, “brutalising” McGregor. In June, McGregor defeated fellow immigrant, German Gus Rennert in Adelaide in a match billed as being for the South Australian Heavyweight title. The next month, he defeated local wrestler G. Kopach in his home town, Port Pirie. In August, he defeated Japan’s Professor (Ryugora) Shima 3-2 in Adelaide, where Shima had settled, in a wrestling v Jiu Jitsu match.  This was the final record found for Peter McGregor, though he is known to have continued wrestling into 1911.

In that year, he moved to Adelaide, taking a job as a barman. He later moved to Port Augusta (where shipping meets rail), where he was a waterside worker and he met and married his wife. In 1915, Peter McGregor heard the call and enlisted in the army. He was first stationed in North Africa, then he was sent to France. In April 1916, newspapers reported that his wife had received the dreaded “missing in action” letter. Not long after, it was confirmed. Lance Corporal Peter McGregor had been killed in action in on the battlefields of The Somme. His body lies in the Soldiers’ Graveyard in France. Newspapers at the time added that “his young son is showing promise with the gloves despite his tender years” 

Opponents: Bhuttan Singh, Gus Rennert, G.Kopach, Professor Shima

PETER BANNON (1908)

Burnley’s Peter Bannon was a middleweight of such great skill that he could hold his own with heavyweights. He has also been described as a shady character. In short, he was a small-time criminal who happened to be an excellent wrestler. In researching him, there were as many newspaper reports of his court appearances as his wrestling matches. You can read about his life and career in detail in Ron Historyo’s “On the Trail” series

Bannon arrived in Australia in January 1908. For the first seven months of the year, all his matches were in Melbourne. The first recorded match was in February, a win against Bert Woods. In March, he fell short in his challenge to Clarence Weber’s Australian Heavyweight title, losing 2-0. He next defeated local wrestler Dick Porter in May. In June, a rematch with Weber resulted in a hard-fought draw. Next, Bannon drew with Bhuttan Singh in July

Bannon and Singh struck up a relationship and toured South Australia and Western Australia together, joined by George Dinnie for the Western Australia leg. The “Empire Trio” (my name for them) engaged in a series of matches across the two states for self-created fictional titles. 

The tour began on August 1 in Adelaide with Bannon defeating Gus Rennert. A week later, also in Adelaide, Bannon and Singh drew in a match billed as being for the Australian Light Heavyweight title. At this point, the tour was interrupted when Bannon was diagnosed with Appendicitis and had to return to Melbourne for surgery. The tour resumed later in the month with Bannon and Singh again drawing in Adelaide.

Singh and Bannon then travelled to Western Australia, where they were joined by George Dinnie. The first record of this leg of the tour is September 21, when Bannon defeats George Dinnie by a foul in Perth. This time the match was billed as being for the Australian Middleweight title. The match was noted for its violence, with the action spilling into empty chairs and Dinnie nearly ending up in the orchestra pit (again). Singh and Bannon met yet again in Perth and again it was a draw, the match this time being billed for the Australian Heavyweight title with Singh as defending champion. They could get away with this because Weber had never defended the title in Perth

In October, the “Empire Trio” next travelled to the remote gold mining town of Kalgoorlie, where Bannon defeated Singh for the false heavyweight title. Shortly after, Bannon defended the title successfully against Dinnie in Perth. 

This was the final record for Peter Bannon. By this time, he had appeared in court for a number of offences across three states. The authorities had had enough of him, and Peter Bannon became the first wrestler to be deported from Australia.

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OPPONENTS: Bert Woods, Clarence Weber, Dick Porter, Bhuttan Singh, Gus Rennert, George Dinnie

ALEX “BIG” BAIN (1909-10, 1911, 1919-38)

Alex Bain was a member of a famous Aberdeen family of wrestlers. He arrived in Australia in December 1909 as one of Hackenschmidt’s exhibition partners on his second tour. He took part in no other matches while on this tour. When the tour concluded in New Zealand, Bain remained, settling in Auckland where he continued his wrestling career until the onset of World War 1

In May 1910, he defeated R.J. (Bob) Scott to win the “Plutonic Isles” title Heavyweight title in Auckland but the next month failed in his challenge to New Zealand Heavyweight champion W. Smith in Wellington. He returned to Australia in August 1911, losing to Clarence Weber 2-0 in Sydney in match billed as being for the Australasian Heavyweight title (this being the collective term for Australia and New Zealand). These are only records found of his in-ring career in Australia and New Zealand. 

Bain did not return to the ring after World War 1. He became the wrestling correspondent for an Auckland newspaper. As well he became a trainer and promoter. He was a frequent visitor to Australia in the period between the wars, bringing with him small groups of wrestlers. He promoted cards in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Broken Hill. For a time in the early Thirties, he was the resident promoter at Newtown Stadium in Sydney.

Bain’s most notable achievements as a promoter were touring former world champion Stanislaus Zbyszko of Poland in 1927 (Bradford’s Sam Clapham was an opponent) and a 1925 Sydney bout, also billed as being for the Australasian Heavyweight title in which the New Zealand champion, Māori legend Ike Robin, defeated Australian champion Clarence Weber.  There are far too many to mention, but other matches he promoted were Mohammed Ali Sunni of India v Peter Limutkin of Poland in Broken Hill, Zbyszko v Limutkin in Adelaide and, also in Broken Hill, an all-Scottish affair of Baines v Jim McMurdo 

Opponents: Clarence Weber

JIM McMURDO (1910-14, 1919-1932)

Another Scot from Edinburgh, Jim McMurdo came to Australia from Scotland via South Africa, where he lived and worked for a few years.  A middleweight, he was often billed as the Scottish and South African champion at that weight. There are very few records for the period 1910-14 but three were found for Jim McMurdo. In 1910, he defeated Gunga Brahms and William McKenzie in Melbourne, where he settled. In 1911, he lost to Professor Shima in Cumberland v Jui Jitsu match, also in Melbourne. Like many wrestlers, Jim McMurdo’s career was curtailed by World War 1. While many wrestlers who served did not return to the ring after the war, McMurdo was one who did, continuing until 1932. We will explore his post-war career in the next part of this series

With the coming of the war, many wresters enlisted. Having no viable opponents, heavyweight champion Clarence Weber retired. Professional wrestling ceased for the duration of the war. Following the war, there was little activity until 1922.  Then things changed, in a very big way

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