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A Forgotten Champion
One of the many forgotten men of British wrestling. Well, until Wrestling Heritage came along that is. Thanks to Ron Historyo and Paul Mitchell Ginger Burke is forgotten no more.
At the start of modern wrestling in 1930 the first lightweight champion was Harold Angus who through the decade moved up the weights.
Possibly not next but by 1935 Ginger Burke was the lightweight champion of Britain if the advertising is true. Ginger blazed a trail ready for George Kidd and Johnny Saint decades later.
Ginger Burke was from Tyldeley a small town eight or so miles from Wigan. This was mining country. Ginger was from “The Jig,” a long demolished poverty stricken collection of terraced housing. Born on 20th March, 1901, this would be a hard up-bringing. Ron Historyo found that in 1921 the family still lived at 9, Railway Street but by 1939 had moved to Elliott Street. Ron knows the area well, “You have to see that hill up into Tyldesley to believe it.”
By the age of twenty Ginger was a miner at Bridgewater Colliery whilst his father was a miner at Pilkington Colliery.
Surprisingly, the man that became familiar to wrestling fans was already a familiar face in sporting circles. That’s because Ginger was Peter Kelly, a professional soccer player for Chorley, Notts County and New Brighton. In 1933 he left Chorley FC (which is where he had started in 1921) and went to play for his final club, non league Hindsford. It was around this time he turned his attention to wrestling.
Ginger wrestled mainly in the north of England with high calibre opponents Jack Alker, Pat Magee, Doulas The Turk and Joe Reid. In a match between Ginger and Olympian Joe Reid (billed as British Bantamweight champion) Ginger was judged the cleverer of the two wrestlers.
There could be some confusion, couldn’t there always in wrestling? Ginger should not be confused with twelve year old Boy Burke from Tyldesley who wrestled as a schoolboy at Preston in 1935.This could possibly have been a younger brother or a son. We know he did have a younger brother, Tony, who had also followed him into soccer.
During the war Ginger Burke continued to wrestle but was also a Sergeant in the Royal Engineers, again if billing can be believed. Last sighted in February1949 wrestling Jim Noice at Southsea.
Page added 05/04/2026
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