BoxRec

just wondering if you can help me, i've been researching my partners family tree and we have stumbled on a boxer by the name of James John (GUNNER) Moir who was british heavyweight champion in 1906, (he is her cousin 3 times removed) Gunner also boxed Tommy Burns on the 2nd december 1907 for the world heavyweight title and was beat in 9 rounds, what i wanted to know would anyone know of where i could get any books,pictures,stories ect,ect so we can learn more about Gunner Moir.

There is film of Gunner Moir boxing Burns - it was a one-sided mismatch.
Born Lambeth 17 April 1879
Died Sutton, Surrey, 12 June 1939
5ft 9 1/2in Around 200lbs
See his boxing record on this site. I did a small piece on him in my book The Heavyweights, but the gist of it is that he won the British title with a 9th round disqualification over Jack Palmer from Newcastle, and the gentlemen of the National Sporting Club put him in with Tommy Burns for the world title. He was knocked down early on, stood up to the punishment to the 9th when he tottered around and he was knocked out in the 10th. Looks as if he didn't really recover from that. He barely won another fight, but as I said you can see that on the record here. He lost his British title to Iron Hague of Mexborough in one round in April 1909 and won and lost against Bombardier Billy Wells, the most famous British heavyweight of the era. He became an attendant at Canterbury Music Hall, played small roles in several movies - more than once as an executioner. He died in hospital. Left a widow and six children.
Hope that's a start.

bobmee wrote:There is film of Gunner Moir boxing Burns - it was a one-sided mismatch.
Born Lambeth 17 April 1879
Died Sutton, Surrey, 12 June 1939
5ft 9 1/2in Around 200lbs
See his boxing record on this site. I did a small piece on him in my book The Heavyweights, but the gist of it is that he won the British title with a 9th round disqualification over Jack Palmer from Newcastle, and the gentlemen of the National Sporting Club put him in with Tommy Burns for the world title. He was knocked down early on, stood up to the punishment to the 9th when he tottered around and he was knocked out in the 10th. Looks as if he didn't really recover from that. He barely won another fight, but as I said you can see that on the record here. He lost his British title to Iron Hague of Mexborough in one round in April 1909 and won and lost against Bombardier Billy Wells, the most famous British heavyweight of the era. He became an attendant at Canterbury Music Hall, played small roles in several movies - more than once as an executioner. He died in hospital. Left a widow and six children.
Hope that's a start.

cheers mate i'll get onto it

I have a book that Gunner Moir published, its called The Complete Boxer. Its a handbook to show the correct way of boxing . its the 2nd edition i have, he explains that he has done more work in this one, Gunner talks about some of his fights, and goes into some details about the Burns fight.

found this on Amazon, which shows a the book. It looks like the 2nd edition, circa 1914 i think. Mine is in better condition than that.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Boxer- ... B002MX8YKQ

they do come up on ebay now and again, you can get it for around 20-25 quid

There's some excellent footage of Moir training for and fighting Bombardier Billy Wells here:

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist/BHC_R ... =*&v=0&a=1

N.B. The clip has been edited together badly: there are some shots of Moir training, followed by footage of the end of the fight, then footage from the start of the fight.

Darcy Delaney wrote:just wondering if you can help me, i've been researching my partners family tree and we have stumbled on a boxer by the name of James John (GUNNER) Moir who was british heavyweight champion in 1906, (he is her cousin 3 times removed) Gunner also boxed Tommy Burns on the 2nd december 1907 for the world heavyweight title and was beat in 9 rounds, what i wanted to know would anyone know of where i could get any books,pictures,stories ect,ect so we can learn more about Gunner Moir.

Darcy Delaney wrote:just wondering if you can help me, i've been researching my partners family tree and we have stumbled on a boxer by the name of James John (GUNNER) Moir who was british heavyweight champion in 1906, (he is her cousin 3 times removed) Gunner also boxed Tommy Burns on the 2nd december 1907 for the world heavyweight title and was beat in 9 rounds, what i wanted to know would anyone know of where i could get any books,pictures,stories ect,ect so we can learn more about Gunner Moir.

hi I have a newspaper dated bk to 3.12.1907 with the fight on the newspaper is all about the fight and it says in paper it was the tenth round not sure what to do with the paper its very old to.

I can add a bit of trivia: 'Gunner' retired from boxing in 1913 and apparently became a 'Beefeater' (a guard at The Tower Of London) for a while.
I believe the Burns-Moir fight was the first time a referee officiated from inside the ring.

Here is a link to the Burns V Moir fight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klrGFMKgclY

Great research!

Fantastic thread

bobmee wrote:There is film of Gunner Moir boxing Burns - it was a one-sided mismatch.
Born Lambeth 17 April 1879
Died Sutton, Surrey, 12 June 1939
5ft 9 1/2in Around 200lbs
See his boxing record on this site. I did a small piece on him in my book The Heavyweights, but the gist of it is that he won the British title with a 9th round disqualification over Jack Palmer from Newcastle, and the gentlemen of the National Sporting Club put him in with Tommy Burns for the world title. He was knocked down early on, stood up to the punishment to the 9th when he tottered around and he was knocked out in the 10th. Looks as if he didn't really recover from that. He barely won another fight, but as I said you can see that on the record here. He lost his British title to Iron Hague of Mexborough in one round in April 1909 and won and lost against Bombardier Billy Wells, the most famous British heavyweight of the era. He became an attendant at Canterbury Music Hall, played small roles in several movies - more than once as an executioner. He died in hospital. Left a widow and six children.
Hope that's a start.

Great reply. More than once as an executioner! Classic

excellent

Ketchel wrote:Here is a link to the Burns V Moir fight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klrGFMKgclY

Can anyone get this on a disc for me I'll cover any cost that may occur ?

Darcy Delaney wrote:

Ketchel wrote:Here is a link to the Burns V Moir fight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klrGFMKgclY

Can anyone get this on a disc for me I'll cover any cost that may occur ?

If you've got a blank disc you'll be able to do it yourself, google youtube converter, put the link in and it will convert it to an mp3 file that you can download to your computer, then pop the disc in and burn the footage to it.