Also known as Arthur Sparks
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London Pride
London’s East End is known for close knit family communities and one of those was the fighting Fishers who hailed from Poplar. It is Charles Fisher Sr., a ship builder born in 1878, and his wife Susan, to whom we owe our gratitude for parenting the seven Fisher brothers.
Many Heritage readers will remember Arthur and Charlie, a couple of rumbustious light heavies who were still setting the rings afire in the first half of the 1960s. In the rings of London the Fishers were very popular with fans and wrestled within the rules.
Elsewhere they were not exactly villains but they were tough and rugged wrestlers who more or less stayed inside the rules; hard men who gave no quarter and it wasn’t unknown to find themselves admonished by the referee. The brothers had a boxing background before making money in the wrestling rings, and another thing they had in common was use of the name Sparks at the start of their careers.
Arthur Fisher was born on 31st January, 1918, the second youngest of seven brothers he was preceded by Len, Bert, Charlie, Stan, and Eddie,
When war broke out, in 1939, Arthur was working as a lorry driver, still a single man living at home. We find him wrestling under the name Arthur Sparks in 1938, a promising start but as for many others it was a career interrupted by the outbreak of war. During the war Arthur and his other brothers worked in a reserved occupation repairing warships at the dry dock on the Isle of Dogs London.
Reports from 1944 state that Arthur was a promising and skilful lightweight, whilst by the end of the decade he is matched with experienced men and firmly placed in the middleweight division. Opponents around that time included Olympian Norman Morrell, Vic Hessle, and Danny Flynn.
Although strongly associated with dale Martin Promotions and matches in the south of England in the 1940s Arthur could be found working all over the country. Never a top of the bill wrestler Arthur was a regular worker for a quarter of a century and fans have fond memories of his rugged, value for money style in both singles matches and as tag partner of brother Charlie. Last seen in action in 1966.
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