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The first decade of the Twentieth Century is often referred to as the Golden Years of wrestling because this was the time wrestling transferred from the fields to the theatres and music halls of Britain. Each night wrestlers would take to the stage and issue challenges to members of the audience. This was how the great George Hackenschmidt had begun his career in Britain.
With George Hackenschmidt having established himself as the country’s best wrestler we came across Little Hackenschmidt for the first time in 1906, advertising his services as the “Undisputed World’s champion Boy Wrestler and Herculean Pose Artist,” available for hire by halls, circuses and exhibitions. He was certainly diminutive, said to weigh seven and a half stones (105 pounds). Just a year later he was proclaiming himself “The Battling Bantamweight Champion of the World,” wrestling catch-as-catch-can style around the country and inviting challenges from local wrestlers as he toured.
It was a routine that was to keep him busy until professional wrestling heralded new opportunities in the 1930s. In 1910 when he appeared in Hartlepool for a week it was reported that 70% of the town’s 22,000 population had visited the theatre.
Little Hackenschmidt claimed to have been trained by the original Hackenschmidt, which we doubt (Hack protested strongly about others taking his name) and he was certainly neither Russian nor German as claimed, Little Hackesnschmidt was otherwise known by the more prosaic name Henry O’Brien.
He was still working the music halls in 1930, when talk emerged in Britain of a new style of wrestling about to be imported from the United States. Despite being in his forties took advantage of the opportunities offered and enthusiastically adopted the all-in style wrestling in the halls.
Much was made of Little Hackenschmidt’s alleged unblemished record he was too light, even now nearing 9 stones (126 pounds), to compete with most of the better known names. His most high profile opponent was Chesterfield’s Johanfesson. When he lost to Johanfesson in an All-In style contest at Sheffield in March, 1931, it was claimed this was his first loss in 800 matches. A return contest under Catch-as-Catch-Can rules was won by Hackenschmidt. It was a routine to be repeated in halls around northern England.
In 1913 following his divorce Henry O’Brien moved to Chesterfield. We have been unable to confirm his birth and death but the most likely matching records indicate a birth date of 19th June, 1886, death in 1972.
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