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Bob Silcock
Also known as The Blue Mask, The Red Mask
Ron Histryo Goes On The Trail
In all my research I have highlighted people who have helped build wrestling to a position where it could enter a Golden Age. The war virtually destroyed wrestling in the south but in the north, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Scotland kept the business strong.
It wasn’t just promoters like Bankier and Relwyskow, it took many loyal imports who settled in particular in the Manchester area and also London based wrestlers who came north. Not every senior figure was a businessman and wanted to run a wrestling hall, some were effectively matchmakers. Billy Riley taught Shoot Wrestling and Jack Atherton was big on the showmanship side of training. Billy and Jack did some promoting as R and A for example in the Isle of Man to help Arthur Almond, who no doubt took the financial risk.
Bob Silcock is one other man who comes into this category; his style was clever and clean and studying reports he was a showman and skilful wrestler rather than a tough shooter. He also helped with the match making, in particular over on the Isle.
Over the years we have the tales of the Snake Pit in Wigan and all the Wiganers who trained there. Today Wigan is a district as well as a town. If you live in Hindley or Ashton-in-Makerfield you are a Wiganer. The Dynamite Kid was from Golborne, a good few miles from Wigan. Jack Alker, an early light weight champion was from Ince.
I think Martin Conroy was from the Leigh area as were others. Some of the guys though were from the back streets of the town of Wigan itself. Bob Silcock was one such man.
Bob was born 19th December 1912 and he saw it all. His death was 1992 and although we will never know what he thought, he saw all of the Golden age and the entire journey of TV wrestling.
I can find Bob as early as 1933 age 21 fighting Harold Angus. To have a bout with Angus then was some going, he was an all time great. Think George Kidd or Johnny Saint and you have an idea how good he was.
Come forward a few years (1937) and look at the company Silcock kept – Riley, Atherton, Conroy, Wild Tarzan and Hesselle.
I am going to put just a little bit of fiction into a lot of fact and paint the reader a picture.
The year is 1939. We are in Wigan less than half a mile from the town centre. Rylands Street, street of terraced houses with the roofs stepping down every few houses to indicate a slope. Long narrow back gardens, a nice plot for keeping hens and growing veg.
A physically fit well made man is stood in the bedroom looking in the wardobe. There were costumes, some red and some blue, trunks, tights a robe and masks. The masks were woollen.
Wife Alice of six years who had been a Wood was now a Silcock and she was shouting upstairs. “Bob, young Bill (age 5) has been asking if you are wrestling tonight.”
“Yes” called back Bob.
“Will you be in a mask?”
“Yes” said Bob “Red tonight but I’m in Douglas on Tuesday and will be using Blue over there.”
The chimney turned out smoke and dinner was in the oven. Bob had finished a hard day at the market. He was a Fruit Sales assistant by day. By night he was Bob Silcock, wrestler, or The Red Mask, or The Blue Mask. That was the scene at 11 Rylands Street.
On the other side of the road up the street at number 64 was mum and dad. Dad was also a William or Bill (take your pick). Mum was Margaret, she had been a Glover.
Bob even had a younger brother, Bill, just to confuse the issue, and a couple of sisters
Seems to me dad was Bob’s boss. Bill Silcock was a Retail fruiterer.
Easy now to see how Bob had the flexibility to put in a lot of time as a wrestler.
The papers report that Bob played Rugby League for Wigan and he was also an amateur wrestling champion.
So, coming back to fact and only eight weeks apart I can find Silcock fighting a regular opponent in George Gregory. It was a well oiled performance, they probably even travelled together. Red here, Blue there.
The format was pretty similar wherever a mask was used. The first bout leads to a grudge showdown. I mentioned it in the Isle of Man Grappling, George Gregory was the latest opponent to try and beat Silcock in Douglas and in the first bout twists the mask to render Bob blind and gives him a beating. Result disqualification.
After a long unbeaten run. Silcock unmasks himself by default because he did not trust Gregory not to repeat the tactic.
What is really an eye opener is that you may know that when Kendo Nagasaki beat Count Bartelli in 1966, the Count went around the country unmasking at each hall.
Where did that tradition come from?
Well, Silcock had done it years before Bartelli, travelling around and voluntarily unmasking following that initial revelation.
That leads me to ask was the whole thing William Bankiers idea as he was the promoter? Or was it Silcocks own idea or maybe Riley and Atherton? Was this the first time this had been done here in Britain?
As far as the Red Mask goes I also wrote about his unmasking at the hands of the Dark Owl (Billy Riley) after two grudge matches at Hanley later in 1939. After that Silcock was billed as the former Red Mask honourably sticking to the pledge of a masked man. The Red Mask of course was not just exclusive to Hanley, another example of Bob Silcock doing the rounds.
For any real mask enthusiasts I will point out that at this time there was a Black Mask but he was Ben Sherman and also portrayed by Charlie Elliot.
During the war there was a long run of a Blue Mask at Newcastle and I don’t find him being unmasked.
Was this Silcock? Well I have my doubts.
By 1941 Bob Silcock was serving in the RAF where he doubles as a Physical training instructor, and he only wrestles sporadically during 42,43,44. The war was a big interruption, but for Bob I speculate that it was not the most significant event.
On Christmas night of 1941 a Wigan Corporation bus parked in the Market Place ran away backwards with no driver. The vehicle knocked down three people. Bill Silcock, dad, was crushed and died. Dad was only 52 and had served in the first World war in the Queens Yeomanry in France.
The two other people survived and Bob was mentioned in the newspaper write up as being in the RAF.
It is speculation on my part but after the war Bob must have had a business to keep going. Dad had come from a mining family but starting as a Hawker, built up the Fruit trading business.
In those times this may have paid reasonably well, there were no Supermarkets to take the business from the markets in those days.
After the war, just going off newspapers I don’t think Bob was quite so prolific and this could be the reason. However that is not to say that through the 1950’s he did not continue because he was very evident in the Isle of Man.
He did it all really, matchmaker, referee and was still turning out wrestling in 1953.
At the end of the war Robert Silcock junior had come along but it was the older son Bill who did some wrestling, maybe the pull of the family business kept him from going in for it in a big way.
Bob Silcock was a great showman wrestler who deserves an extended write up so as to take his place on Heritage as one of the great Wiganers.
It is incredibly hard to find a decent picture of Bob Silcock and for sure I never found the masked versions. The best picture I found myself, I think in 1957 and showed it in the Isle of Man series. I make no apology for showing it again as it is a great picture showing what a great friendship existed between these northern wrestlers.
Left to right Billy Joyce, Bill Silcock, Alex Brae, Cliff Belshaw, Bob Silcock, Ernie Baldwin, Mel Riss
It would be nothing new if I said Bob fought some wrestlers dozens of times, only revealed now with the aid of archived newspapers. Top of the list was probably Lew Faulkner, but also Tony Baer, George Gregory and Francis Gregory. Dozens may be putting it lightly, it may have been a hundred or more.
Bob Silcock, an innovator who gave a lot to the game.
Ron Historyo
Bill Silcock
Son of Bob Silcock young Bill followed his dad into both his trades, making his wrestling debut in the Isle of Man and running a fruit stall on Wigan market. That professional debut was at Laxey Glen in June, 1956, against a heavier opponent, Alec Bray. Bill surprisingly won that encounter with falls in the fourth and sixth round against Bray’s opener in the third.
Wrestling Heritage 