Jack Lalor

Jack Lalor (b. Arundel, Sussex, 07/03/1875 – d. Johannesburg, 22/07/1964) was a boxer, trainer, manager and one-off actor.

Biography

Born Edmund George Lawlor, Jack Lalor was the son of Irish-born Joseph Lawlor and his wife, Agatha West. At the age of 14 he was a drummer boy with the King’s Royal Rifles and came to South Africa with them in 1896. He had been the heavyweight champion of his regiment and between 1897 and 1919 he was a professional boxer, first as a welterweight, then as a middleweight and finally as a heavyweight, winning the South African championship in all three divisions. During his career he is estimated to have won 55 matches, lost 8 and drawn 8. He is also known to have acted in one film. In Joseph Albrecht’s sporting drama The Stolen Favourite (1919) he plays the heroine’s brother, a keen amateur boxer, who is instrumental in enabling the hero to regain the money he lost due to the villain’s crooked schemes. His sporting opponent in the film, Dick Heyns (credited as Dick Hayes), had also been a genuine heavyweight boxer. Even after his retirement he remained active in the sport and in between fights and afterwards he acted as popular host/barman in a number of Johannesburg hotels. His wife Sarah died in 1948, a year before they were to have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. He died in a Johannesburg old age home at the age of 89. The couple had 14 children. (FO)