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One of the pioneers of all-in wrestling William James Welsh was the Iron Duke and was born in London on 6th May 1901 to Lawrence and Sarah, a family of Irish heritage. His father had begun working life as a labourer but by the time of William’s birth was working as a crane driver.
William Welsh went on to work in London’s Surrey Docks and joined the merchant navy in 1921, serving on the battleship Iron Duke. It was from here that he took his fighting name, The Iron Duke. In 1928 he married Elizabeth Philps in Bethnal Green, and went on to have three children. In 1939, still wrestling, he is living in Lambeth and gives his occupation as Stevedore.
We find him wrestling regulary, mostly but not exclusively in the south of England, from the end of 1933. Living up to his name he was something of a battler himself, with one report revealing that the much lighter Iron Duke “secured the first fall in the second round by punching his opponent to the boards.” The opponent was none other than the giant 7 feet tall, 22 stones Carver Doone! We have read of other equally rumbustious encounters with Jack Pye and Bulldog Bill Garnon. Whoever the opponent the Iron Duke could give as good as he got.
In fairness we should add that there are many reports of the Iron Duke wrestling skilfully and within the rules, such as a match with Sam Rabin, in which “the encounter was notable for the sporting way in which it was contested,” and against Carl Reginsky, “One of the finest and cleanest wrestling bouts seen in Plymouth.” Iron Duke wrestled mainly, but not exclusively, in the south of England against all the well-known names of the All-In era, finally disappearing from our rings in 1946.
William Welsh died on 15th September 1970.
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