William Thompson (boxer) - Retirement and Decline

Retirement and Decline

Feeling he was getting too old for Prize Fighting, Thompson "The Nottingham Jester" stepped down undefeated as Champion, with two prize belts and four Silver Cups to his name. Thompson was perhaps the last of the 'Great' Prize Fighters and to some is considered the 'Champion of Champions'. He is credited with inventing the 'Southpaw' stance, ensuring his legacy lies within the fabric of boxing forever. His outspoken character and record in the ring attracted a massive fan base, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote a verse to the fighter, titled Bendigo's Sermon;

You didn't know of Bendigo?

Well that knocks me out!

Who's your board schoolteacher?

What's he been about?

Chock a block with fairy tales;

Full of useless cram,

And never heard of Bendigo

The Pride Of Nottingham

Speaking on his own career Thompson proudly said "I was engaged in 21 matched fights and never was beaten in one. What is more, I never in my life had a hit on the nose hard enough to make it bleed; and in all my battles I never once got a black eye." After declaring his retirement, he took up an unofficial role as Boxing Coach at Oxford University teaching rich young Gentlemen the noble art of pugilism. As it was an unofficial role, they had to disguise him as a professor to get him into the grounds. A far cry from when he was back at Nottingham Workhouse a few years before.

However, this mixing with the upper echelons didn't appeal to him much either, so it wasn't long before he made his way back to Nottingham. Soon after his return, his mother died, and Thompson saw this as failing to keep his promise to "keep Mam out the Workhouse" so he lost his way and turned to alcohol. Now though, he was a national celebrity and comparatively rich to boot. He became involved with The Nottingham Lambs; a politically motivated group who were rife in Nottingham causing much civil unrest and violence, and on some occasions even rioting through the Market Square, protesting against the conditions in which people were left to live and burning down Nottingham Castle before it was rebuilt. An official bumped into Thompson in the Three Crowns Tavern while on a visit to Nottingham and reported,

After a few years, the fallen champ became a sorry drunken mess, not even a shadow of his former self. Gangs of children would taunt him when they saw him out in the streets. A magistrate summed up Thompson, while sending him for one of his 28 visits to The House of Correction for Drunk and Disorderly, sometimes taking half a dozen constables to restrain him; "Thompson, when sober was one of the nicest men in Nottingham, but when yer drunk, you ain't!" After one of his "holidays" inside, Thompson started to take an interest in the prison chaplain's sermons, especially the story of David and Goliath, declaring, "I do hope the lit'lun licks the big'un."