(This article includes a video interview with Joe Rolfe and fellow pre-war Bermondsey boxer Tom Daly - well worth a look!)
The name Joe Rolfe may mean nothing to you, and that's not surprising, for it's 82 years since it last decorated the sporting headlines and billposters of London. In the 1920s it was a name synonymous with gameness, sportsmanship, fighting skill and a fearsome right hand; a name bellowed loudly all around the south London district of Bermondsey, a place famed for its docks, its tanneries, and its fearless fighting men.
Joe Rolfe started life there on 20 December 1901 with the given name of Joseph Olliffe. Aged eight he joined Bermondsey's renowned Fisher amateur boxing club, he married early at age 16, but to his dismay found work on the local docks hard to come by. It was through sheer necessity that he decided to turn pro, and attempted to get himself onto the bill at the famous Covent Garden National Sporting Club (NSC), which at the time ran novices' competitions in support of the main bouts.
Continue reading:
http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/2011/0 ... leman.html
Joe Rolfe – puncher and gentleman
Re: Joe Rolfe – puncher and gentleman
Use to have Dinner with Joe at Hayes Wharf, where He worked. One lovely guy, use to tell me stories, I was all ears. Oh the Good old days, He would always do people favours, a very Generous Man, with a gentle manner. A little story. He was asked to spar Micky Walker, Micky was over here. Joe took His wife to show off at the spar. Joe said I hit him with a lefthook a cracker, thought got his number. I said and, He replied it woke Him up Bashed the Shit out of Me, Wife wasnt to pleased. Great Guy. 
Re: Joe Rolfe – puncher and gentleman
Terrific story, Scrap. What a fighter Mickey Walker was!
Re: Joe Rolfe – puncher and gentleman
So was Joe, have it with anyone 
Re: Joe Rolfe – puncher and gentleman
No doubt about that! Joe certainly would have been a champion today.
Re: Joe Rolfe – puncher and gentleman
Alex, I think so