Within my Yvon Durelle research, I found the following:
Harry Poulton
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_ ... &cat=boxer
Island boxer dies
Last Updated: Monday, April 2, 2007 | 12:58 PM AT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward- ... -obit.html
HARRY POULTON, 81 BOXER
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.obit ... 41YuGjZ_ZQ
Boxer overcame polio to triumph in the ring as 'the fighting
ghost'
Slender and deceptively frail-looking, he used a shrunken
right foot to advantage and developed a crouching
bob-and-weave style that baffled his opponents
ALLISON LAWLOR
Special to The Globe and Mail
May 29, 2007
HALIFAX -- Known in his heyday as "the fighting ghost" for
his ability to feint opponents, Prince Edward Island boxer
Harry Poulton overcame a childhood disability to fight more
than 120 recorded professional bouts during his 12-year
career.
Also dubbed "Harry the Kid," Mr. Poulton began his ring
career in Charlottetown in 1943 at the age of 18. He went on
to capture the Maritime Welterweight Boxing Championship in
the early 1950s and later had two shots at the Canadian
Middleweight Title, losing a close decision on both
occasions. In total, he fought at least half a dozen
Canadian champions and a handful of Maritime title holders.
"He was one of the finest boxers this island has produced,"
said Clair Sudsbury, chairman of the Prince Edward Island
Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
After moving into the middleweight ranks, Mr. Poulton first
went after the Canadian Middleweight Championship in
Stellarton, N.S., on June 19, 1953, against Yvon Durelle,
New Brunswick's famous "fighting fisherman." Mr. Poulton
"fought his heart out in an effort to win the title only to
find himself on the losing end of a hotly disputed 12-round
split decision," Wilf McCluskey wrote in a column in PEI's
The Guardian. Over the course of his career, Mr. Poulton
fought Mr. Durelle four times, but never managed to beat
him.
"Harry the Kid possessed many tricks, most of them of his
own invention, and he pulled them when they were least
expected," Mr. McCluskey wrote.
"His elusive and crouching bob-and-weave style was mighty
baffling to his foes. Everybody who has watched Poulton in
the ring knows the meaning of the word 'feinting.' You can
always spot a good fighter by his feinting. He is a cool,
collected type. The fellow who doesn't rush in pell-mell,
blindfolded, with arms swinging like a gate, eager to finish
his man off in a jiffy."
Mr. Poulton attempted to win the Canadian Middleweight
Championship again on June 29, 1954, in Saint John. The spot
had been left vacant by Mr. Durelle, who had moved up to
fight in the light heavyweight division. This time, Mr.
Poulton lost in a 12-round decision to Charlie Chase, a
Canadian Olympian. Not winning the Canadian championship was
the greatest disappointment in Mr. Poulton's fighting
career, according to Mr. McCluskey.
Mr. Poulton's greatest fight came in 1953. His opponent was
a fighter from Brooklyn, N.Y., named Gil Edwards. Held at
the Charlottetown Forum before an audience of at least
2,000, Mr. Edwards arrived confident he would win.
Underestimating his opponent, he turned to the boxing
organizers and asked whether they wanted the match to go in
the first or the 10th round.
"Harry Poulton won in the 10th round," Mr. McCluskey said.
"That was one of the best that was every fought on the
island."
Raised in Charlottetown's poor east end, Mr. Poulton was one
of six children of a local bootlegger. He was stricken with
polio and spent the first nine years of his life in a cast.
The experience left him with a shrunken right foot, his son
Gary said.
Later in life, he learned to use his disability to his
advantage in the boxing ring. "He'd swivel on the foot that
had polio," said Mr. McCluskey, who knew Mr. Poulton as a
child. Mr. McCluskey and his three brothers, who all went on
to boxing careers, grew up in the same neighbourhood in
Charlottetown and liked to set up makeshift boxing rings in
their backyards. "We were always fighting."
The Poulton house was a source of illicit beer and moonshine
that was busily produced by "Ma Poulton," as young Harry's
mother was known. Her kitchen offered half a dozen chairs,
where customers could come and sit to have a hot toddy and
catch up with neighbours and friends.
By Grade 9, he had dropped out of school, never to return
and ended up in the boxing ring where, eventually, he
trained under one of the best handlers of professional
boxers in Eastern Canada. Mr. Poulton soon found he excelled
as a pugilist. During the war years, he fought almost every
week against the servicemen at the nearby air force base, or
wherever they could find a good place to fight.
"He was a terrific fighter," Mr. McCluskey said. "He was so
clever."
To see Mr. Poulton on the street in his fighting days, you
wouldn't think he was a boxer, Mr. McCluskey said. Standing
about 5-foot-11 and never weighing more than 160 pounds, he
lacked big arms and shoulders and appeared rather frail.
However, his strength lay in his quickness. "It was just
unreal," Mr. McCluskey added.
Mr. Poulton was in the ring until June, 1955, when he
retired after a bout against Eloi Durelle of New Brunswick.
After hanging up his gloves, Mr. Poulton turned to horse
racing. His mother owned some harness racing horses, which
Mr. Poulton drove and trained in Charlottetown.
"He was a heck of a harness-racing driver," Gary Poulton
said. By all accounts, the sport runs in the family - Mr.
Poulton's nephew, also named Harry, was a famed horseman who
trained champion harness racer Matts Scooter, recognized in
1989 as the world's fastest standardbred.
Aside from driving and training the horses, Mr. Poulton also
loved to gamble on them. He eventually went to work for
PEI's Department of Transportation and Public Works, where
he spent 25 years as a plow dispatcher, among other jobs.
But he never gave up his passion for horse-racing and
gambling, owning some horses of his own for a time and often
frequenting the Charlottetown Driving Park. In recent years,
he loved to call Gary, also a horse owner, to find out how
his horses did.
Described as a quiet, modest man who raised nine children,
Mr. Poulton rarely spoke about his boxing days. While he
didn't brag, he did keep a scrapbook of all the newspaper
clippings of his fights. "Through scrapbooks, I learnt most
of the stuff about his boxing," Gary Poulton said.
While he never pushed his children to fight, his son Billy,
who died of cancer at age 38, boxed and won the New York
Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament.
In 1976, Mr. Poulton became the first professional boxer
from PEI to be inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of
Fame. That same year, he joined the PEI Sports Hall of Fame.
He was an inspiration to his fellow boxers and was one of
the smartest fighters ever to perform in this province, Mr.
Sudsbury said.
"He was so proud to know that people recognized what he had
accomplished," Gary Poulton said.
HARRY POULTON
Harry Poulton was born in Charlottetown on Aug. 10, 1925. He
died of heart failure at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in
Charlottetown on March 29, 2007. He was 81. He leaves
partner Evelyn Gaudet and children Carolyn, Linda, Faye,
Vince, Gail, Gary, Allan and Darlene. He also leaves sisters
Renee and Ruby, plus 20 grandchildren and numerous
great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife, Doris,
who died of cancer in 2000.
