These are our shorter biographical portraits which we would like to extend if you can provide information or memories.
Al Hollamby
Whizz kid of the 1970s and 1980s Judo Al Hollamby looked the part in his white judo outfit. He could wrestle too, against the likes of Bob Courage, Adrian Street and Alan Sargeant. Often seen in tag action alongside Roger L Sandilands, collectively known as Les Diaboliques. Apart from wrestling extensively Al was also one of the major southern independent promoters of the 1970s, in 1979, Verdun Leslie Promotions promoting the first ladies match in London for many years.
Dutchy Holland
Our attempts to uncover information about Dutchy Holland have proved fruitless. This is unfortunate as his son would like to know more about his father. Patrick Henry Holland was born on 3rd February, 1931, served in the navy and then wrestled from 1950 to 1954 approximately.
Mike Holt
Worked on independent promotions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Robin Hoode
Wearing green tights, short, ragged jacket and the sort of haircut that makes seventies nostalgia such a hoot Lincoln’s Robin Hoode was a welterweight performer on the independent circuit in the 1970s. Fans mocked as he entered the ring, but mockery turned to boos and jeers as this bag of dynamite was not quite the same sort of people’s hero as his namesake. Described as the “Mighty Atom” Robin Hoode was a mainstay of the independent scene in the east of England, training at Brian Trevors Gym and appearing regularly on Trevors’ Anglian Promotion and the Clark brothers Star Promotions bills.
Following his retirement Hoode gained international success in a second sport under more challenging circumstances. After tragically going blind he began playing bowls and won a Silver Medal in the 2005 World Blind Singles Championships.
Len Hornby (Also known as Big Bill Schultz)
A gentle giant to his friends the Barrow rugby player Len Hornby moved to Salford where he based a flourishing wrestling career and worked on Salford Docks. His wrestling career began in 1950 with early matches against Tony Baer, Bob McDonald and Jack Atherton. In the mid 1950s he joined the merchant navy sailing the north and south Atlantic, but his interest in wrestling continued. Len continued wrestling for the independent promoters as his navy duties permitted, mainly in northern England against opponents that included Man Mountain Bill Benny, Harry Bennette and Hans Streiger. In the late 1950s, now weighing over twenty stones Len assumed the identity of the villainous American Big Bill Schultz. Len retired from wrestling in 1961. He remained living in Salford until his death in 1998.
Janos Horvath
Janos (born Jeno) was an amateur wrestler in Hungary, following in the footsteps of his father before he came to Britain in December, 1956.Twenty-two year old Janos was living in Luton when he turned professional in 1958, wrestling Chic Purvey in his debut. Jack Dempsey, Bernard Murray and Archer O’Brien were quality opponents who suggested some class before he disappeared abruptly in November of the same year.
Robin Howard
Norwich teenager Robin Howard, a protégé of Brian Trevors, seemed to have a glittering future ahead of him in the early 1970s.
Having progressed from fan, to second at Norwich Town Hall, to trainee wrestler, he made his debut, in 1969, when he was just fifteen years old. That first match showed his potential and Robin was quickly gaining a following in Norfolk when tragedy struck. Robin’s fledgling career was put on hold when he suffered serious injuries in a car accident.
Less than a year later he was back in the ring and began to show real promise, even billed as the Eastern Counties Lightweight title. Robin picked up where he left off and was soon once again being tipped as a future star. He was featured in the June 1972 issue of The Wrestler as a youngster with promise, but any promised success remained no more than just that. He did stick around and we last found him in 1986 still defending that Eastern Counties Lightweight title.
Tony Howard
Gravesend wrestler started out in the early 1970s, working for independent promotions in the south of England. He worked for Dale Martin Promotions between 1975 and 1977. Opponents included Bob Kirkwood and Johnny Kwango, Robby Baron and Iron Man Steve Logan.
Bill Howes
Claimed by fans of Bristol and Lancashire as one of their own, and not surprisingly so. Bill Howes had that gritty technical ability seen only in the men of the North, and yet possessed a touch of flair that they often lacked. Bill Howes favoured punishing holds, with a fondness for the Boston Crab, combined with flurries of action with attitude to antagonise the crowds. When Billy Howes lost his temper you could see it in those wild eyes, though his flying fists and feet hurriedly confirmed the matter. Fans would be convinced he really had lost control because all the signs were there of a man with a deranged mind. Lost control? Almost certainly not, because the wrestling skill of Bill Howes established that here was a man with a disciplined mind. He was a wrestler that even the know-all dads seemed to like and respect. In the same minute he could impress with his textbook ability and, seconds later, enrage those same fans with his disregard for the rules. He was the wrestler with the perfect temperament to make it believable, which it may or may not have been, when he ripped off Kendo Nagasaki’s mask in the masked man’s television debut, in the days when a Nagasaki without a mask was actually worth something.
Chopper Len Howlett
Chopper Len Howlett was a busy worker in London and around southern England in the 1930s, a frequent opponent of George De Relwyskow, Bull Coleman and College Boy. He was one time southern area light heavyweight champion and billed as Central Mediterranean Forces lightweight champion in 1942. He was one of the first professional opponents of a young Mick McManus. His wrestling career continued until the end of the 1940s.
The name was revived in the independent rings of the 1970s.
Mike Howley
Mike Howley was around for some fifteen years or so from 1933 until about 1950. He was a wrestler who deserves more attention and we would like to learn more. Billed from Lancashire, Yorkshire and from Ireland he was listed as Irish middleweight champion in the late 1930s. There are reports that Mike was the brother in law of the great Irish wrestler Steve Casey and taught Casey to wrestle. Mike Howley fought some of the top lighter men, including frequent bouts with Harold Angus, Dick Wills and Jack Dale. Newspaper reports are of a very skilled wrestler with good amateur credentials. In June, 1938 he defeated European champion Alexander Poizat in Plymouth. We have also discovered instances of Mike Howley officiating as a referee.
Roy Howley
The Butlin redcoat who in addition to organising the glamorous grannie competitions also found time to M.C., referee and then make his wrestling debut against Johnny Kwango. In some of his early contests he was known as Roy Levacq, the name he was using on the stage at the time. Roy began wrestling in the late 1950s and worked on a fairly infrequent basis for the next ten years or so, transferring to Joint Promotions in the early 1960s.
Charles Humez
World famous French boxer turned to wrestling after his career ended. He wrestled in Britain in October and November 1960 for the independent promoters, opponents including Tony Zale, Eddie Capelli and Ken Joyce.
Eddie Humphries
Eddie Humphries was a promising wrestler from Dagenham when he appeared on the scene in 1937. With his career interrupted by the Second World War he returned to the ring following the cessation of hostilities only to leave Britain in 1948 to set up home, wrestle and referee in South Africa.
Brian Hunt
1960s independent promoters heavyweight from Cheshire went on to work for Joint Promotions in the 1970s; mostly as a serial masked man – Bula, Dr Death, Outlaw, Red Devil etc
Rebel Ray Hunter
6’4” Tasmanian tag partner of Judo Al Hayes in their Lincoln days, and a globetrotting Heavyweight Champion of the Commonwealth who lost his title to Alan Garfield.When Hunter came to Britain in 1950 he had been the youngest Commonwealth wrestler so to do. He recovered from unsurprising initial disappointment at the hands of Assirati, and with Aussie schoolmate Paul Lincoln, earned his Rebel tag by breaking away from Joint Promotions to set up a rival promotion.
Success came in German heavyweight tournaments and the sixties saw a hedonistic jet-set lifestyle in Soho where Lincoln and he owned the famed 2 Is coffee bar, haunt of Tommy Steele and others. He was linked also with Sophia Loren.Feuded in the early sixties with Docker Don Stedman and made a successful transition back to Dale Martin’s at the end of the decade before disappearing mysteriously from the scene around 1970.
Tarzan Hunter ( Also known as Billy Hunter, Wild Tarzan)
Canadian Heavyweight Billy Hunter was a regular worker in Britain from the mid 1930s. We are unsure where he served during the war, but by 1947 he was back in wrestling action in Britain. He even found himself a wife in Britain, and the story goes that he wrestled on the evening of his wedding, at Bury in Lancashire, unfortunately getting injured during the course of the contest. He wrestled throughout Britain, though mostly in northern England and the midlands, facing the best of the day including Bert Assirati, Mike Marino, Vic Hessle, Billy Riley and Jack Pye. He had a number of great bouts with Count Bartelli, holding the masked man to a draw on numerous occasions. He seems to have disappeared from our rings by the mid 1950s.
Frank Hurley
The West Australian newspaper of 9th October, 1946, told the story of Sydney wrestler Frank Hurley. Frank was reported to have been captured in Crete in 1941 during the Second World and sent to a Prisoner of War camp in Germany. Following his release in 1945 he was said to have wrestled in France and England before returning to Australia at the end of 1945. We were unable to find any UK matches in 1945 but have found him back in Australia at the beginning of 1946. He mainly worked for George Gardiner at the Leichhardt Stadium and on Gardiner’s smaller bills in regional towns and cities.
The rough, tough Australian heavyweight came back to the UK in 1949, we find him here in April proclaimed as Australian heavyweight champion. In those first few months he met the heaviest men in Britain, including The Ghoul, Ray St Bernard and Bill Coverdale, Red McKenzie and a Harringay loss to Jack Pye. In December of 1949 he was reported to have given out a lot of punishment to British champion Bert Assirati before being knocked out in the fourth round. He met the top men in Britain but rarely had his arm raised in victory. Frank left Britain in February 1950s and was not to return until 1960, having spent the intervening years in Australia, the United States and Canada.
A return to Britain in 1960 brought one of his few high profile matches. Dale Martin Promotions billed him at the Royal Albert Hall on 21st September, 1960. For Frank there were none of the favours often granted to visiting overseas wrestlers. They pitted him against the ever popular Dazzler Joe Cornelius, a man in his prime on his own turf. Frank did what was expected of him, as always, and went down by two falls to nil,
Based in Britain for the next seven years Frank worked mostly for Dale Martin Promotions in southern England. On television he was inevitably the bad guy, wrestling Peter Maivia and Roy St Clair, twice. His last tv outing was against Roy St Clair in October, 1965. From then on appearances seemed to become rarer, with our final sighting at Coventry on 17th February, 1968, wrestling Mr Big.
It was said at the time that Frank Hurley was the most travelled wrestler in the world which seemed quite believable. His hobby of ballroom dancing seemed less believable to us but then Heritage sleuth John Shelvey got on the scent. He reported “”I met Frank and asked him about his being a ‘good dancer’. Turning to his better half he replied ‘Ask the missus.’ I did and she confirmed he was a very good dancer. You have to remember guys back in Frank’s day usually did learn to dance and would go regularly.”
Frank also told John that he had wrestled, for real, in the gym with Karl Gotch and Buddy Rogers among others. Back home in Australia it seems that Frank made his last appearance much later than we had assumed as John last saw him in the 1980s in Sydney in a Battle Royal which included Andre the Giant.
John Hurley
For more than twenty years John Hurley could be found flitting around the wrestling rings of southern England. Like all good professionals at the time John knew the necessity of a good amateur foundation followed by an old pro to teach him the ways of the professional world. That old pro was Dulwich’s Len Britton, brother of College boy Charlie Law. On the nights that Len wasn’t teaching the youngster the moves John could be found observing his master, and other professionals, in action at close quarters as one of the wrestling seconds. John had well and truly caught the wrestling bug by the time he turned professional in the mid 1960s, taking those first nervous steps into the paid ring at Acton Town Hall. In the evenings he would wrestle in the halls for the independent promoters and during the day take on all comers in the fairground wrestling booths. There was good money to be had in the booths, but the hours were long, the conditions lousy, and there was always the prospect of having to deal with the local lads who thought they could show the pro a thing or two. They were wrong. In 1974 John came to the attention of Dale Martin Promotions and was signed up to work for the Joint Promotion organisation. John worked for Joints for around ten years, making a couple of wrestling trips to Germany. In the early 1980s he began to cut back on his wrestling commitments and returned to the opposition promoters, finally hanging up his boots in 1986. In the 1980s John went into pub management, taking over the oldest public house in Maidstone, the Royal Albion.
Len Hurst (Also known as The Jamaica Kid)
Born in Jamaica Hurst came to Britain as a teenager and joined the YMCA to pursue his interest in weightlifting. It was here that he became interested in wrestling and joined the United Amateur Wrestling Club to develop his amateur wrestling skiill. When he consisered himself ready Len chose to follow a papid career and was subsequently taken on as a professional by Dale Martin Promotions. Having made his debut in the winter of 1965, aged twenty-one, it didn’t take long for Len Hurst to achieve national popularity through his regular television appearances. Making his tv debut in 1967 he was an immediate success and featured regularly over the next fifteen years. His combination of technical ability, speed and agility made him a popular regular on bills in the 1960s and 1970s.
Erik Husberg
“The Nordic Marvel” Finnish born and French based wrestler made a one week visit in September 1952. He returned for a couple of weeks in 1963 and again in 1964 for Paul Lincoln Management.
Wrestling Heritage 