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Ron Historyo Goes On The Trail of Bert Royal
Bert Royal was born in December 1931, but of course that was not his real name. Herbert Faulkner was the real name and you can’t be any more Boltonian than Bert was. Mum and Dad, even Grandad were Bolton as well.
Lew Faulkner, Bert’s dad, wrestled as Vic Hesselle with various spellings, but not in 1930’s Bolton. Lew was Lew Faulkner when wrestling in Bolton in those days.
To appreciate the picture, let me take you back in time a bit. Lewis Faulkner, was born in 1913 and before he was wrestling he married Miss Armstrong when they were both eighteen years of age.
In those days communities were close knit and by community I am talking about just a few terraced streets in one small vicinity. Let me see if I can open up that window in time a little more to peep through.
Wrestling in Bolton began in 1935 and if you don’t believe me read Bolton Grappling where the opening night bill for October 28th 1935 is displayed. The giant Carver Doone was to be the opening attraction.
1935 was significant for the Faulkner family because I am going to suppose that Lew’s dad John Joseph Faulkner went to see his son wrestle at the new stadium. Lew seems to have turned pro at 22 and was headlining in his own town. Bert was five years old; did he go and see the wrestling?
I have seen even in the Bolton Evening News assumptions that this stadium was the Wryton. How wrong they are. On the corner of Turton Street and Waterloo Street it was actually an old Iron Foundry. Let me take you further in time to 1939, young Bert and his sister were living with mum and dad at 23 Carey Street and widow grandma Faulkner, who had been a McIver, daughter of an Irishman was next door at number 25.
Maybe the Faulkners’ had some of the fighting Irish in them. Lew it seems was a full time wrestler. Grandad had worked in an iron works, possibly the old Foundry, who knows. Carey Street is gone today but it was in the area at the end of Derby Street and Edgar Street south of the town centre. It would have been a few minutes to walk to Bolton Market.
From what I can see the name Vic Hesselle, although adopted in 1935, was not used in Bolton in the 1930’s. When in Bolton Lew’s employer was promoter William Isherwood. It is inconceivable to me that Bert Royal did not walk through the town centre, probably a mile or so to the Stadium north of town, to see his dad wrestle. Bert, I believe must have seen it all.
Just 18 years his father’s junior, Bert was more than 12 years older than Vic who came along in 1944. Much too late for Vic to witness the days of the old stadium. That was the picture of family life I am able to paint for Bert. One has to assume that Bert must have always wanted to wrestle. How else could he have been ready in his teens to debut? It would be easy to assume that turning pro in 1949 Bert would have wrestled a lot in Bolton like his father. If you know your history, this is not the case, the old stadium had closed in 1940 and the Wryton did not come along until 1958.
There are all sorts of theories about the names Hesselle and Royal, but for sure there was no secret behind who they really were. Maybe these names were just pure and simple better suited as Wrestler names than Faulkner. Vic often advertised from exotic Vienna.
When Wryton did come along the name Faulkner was proudly displayed in brackets for the father and son local wrestlers.Digging deep into my archive I wanted to see what was going on in 1950 when Bert Turned pro, and keeping in mind Bert was only operating at lightweight I was surprised to find that an early opponent was non other than Billy Howes. eight years later both are still fighting at Wryton and both billed from Bolton.
As we know in wrestling, learning can be a matter of working with veterans who take you through a bout or sometimes you learn a routine with some other youngster similar to yourself.
In just a few weeks Bert and Billy have a series of two bouts at Colne under Billy Riley who operated for boxing promoter Tom Storr, take the same bout to Newcastle under Norman Morrell and the Cosgrove Baths in Leicester. As I always say, where there are some there will also be a lot more.
The November 2nd bout at Colne was one fall to Howes and a submission to Royal when Howes was knocked out, flying out of the ring in a fast action packed contest. Sportingly Bert Royal declined the decision. In the return at Colne Bert won 2-1. I don’t recall Bert and Billy meeting in later years and indeed Bill Howes went on to be Mid Heavyweight Champion of Europe.
Bert’s most frequent opponent over the next five or six years was Alan Colbeck. These two moved up through the weights together. Even with my own limited archive I found 12 shows where they were matched, including three consecutive months in Glasgow in 1951. By 1955 I found Colbeck beating Bert at Portsmouth and Aberdeen and defending his British Welterweight Title at Newcastle in January of the previous year.
With there being no wrestling stadium in Bolton at that time Bert was doing an awful lot of work traveling to Scotland. You can spot him prolifically working for Relwyskow in these early days in Aberdeen and Dundee. As well as that he worked for Bannerman in Aberdeen and also Grant in Dundee.
By 1955 Bert had met Mick McManus, twice they went the distance with no winner, paving the way for many more match ups. Like McManus v Pallo these well worked exhibitions went on for years.
As a young wrestler Bert paid his dues. Easy to find losses to Les Stent, Danny Flynn, Lew Roseby all in Scotland in 1952
Bert was well travelled, working in Scotland and Ireland, and for whatever reason in the Isle of Man he was always billed as Fred Royal.
We jump to 1964 because here we have a fairly early view of The Royal Brothers Vic, like dad Lew, and brother Bert before him, started very young. Rival tag team The Cadman brothers were great friends of the Faulkners.I know this because one of my mates was laid up in hospital with Ken (I think) and Bert and Vic popped in to visit. My mates jaw dropped. He’s always telling me about it.
Herbert Faulkner must have some very special memories, quite possibly even remembering the pioneer years when he was a boy. The Faulkner’s were a dynasty, all of them well polished wrestlers who thrilled thousands of people with their fast action style.
I never saw Bert in a bad bout, he was always great value. I never saw George Kidd live and when I fancied a night off brawling type bouts Bert and Johnny Saint were the best I saw. As it happens though Bert could dish the rough stuff. Adrian Street was probably an ideal opponent for Bert or Vic but now I am talking many years later and my own time.
The fascination for me is not what I saw, but what I have been able to unearth in the last few years. The old stuff, the early part of careers. 1950 was an incredibly long time ago. Bert’s boyhood even longer.
Vic Hesselle (dad Lew) lived to see most of Bert’s career but died in 1978. I just hope having written all this that maybe there is some info in here that Heritage members did not know. The one legend I have not touched on is that, for sure, Bert was photographed in a mask early in his career. Was it a short stint? It was in fact in a Norman Morrell programme As yet no newspaper reports or bills in the archive back up this photo, and yet there must have been some truth to it. Some claims are that he fought as Royal Blue and dropped the mask to be Bert Royal, but it is also alleged that Bert has said he never wrestled masked. Was it a promotion publicity stunt?
Thanks to the observations of Heritage member Bernard Hughes I found yet another Royal v Howes match but this time a year earlier than I expected in 1949 in the month of Bert’s eighteenth birthday. They had obviously practiced more than I thought. Where there was one there certainly was more.
It’s a long shot but for a short time filling that gap I found a young lightweight wrestler from Lancashire who was fighting all the same opponents, Dempsey, Colbeck, Stent and Belshaw and yet I don’t think he fought Bert. That brief Career was of a man using the alias Young Atlas. He even gets a decision over Colbeck.
Young Atlas seemed to be cutting his teeth in small venues like Bury and Levenshulme, but also travelling up to Scotland. He did not stick around long.
Was Young Atlas early Bert Royal?
Seems possible but I guess it’s a long shot with Atlas billed sometimes from Salford. Strange though, they fight the same men at lightweight, but don’t seem to meet each other then Atlas goes missing.
Nobody seems to know and I can’t prove it.
History is a Peephole in time.
Historyo
Page added 13/06/2021
Reviewed 28/02/2022
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