Ted Lewis, Jewish Boxer who once acted as a bodyguard to Oswald Mosley

Unknown photographer

Ted 'Kid' Lewis [English boxer and World Welterweight Champion] and Jack Britton [ the first three-time world welterweight champion]

Original vintage silver print photograph of Ted Lewis and Jack Britton shaking gloved hands in a ring before a fight with the referee, a trainer and a man holding a presentation belt in a case. Spectators are seated round the ring. Inscribed in ink on the back is ‘Kid Lewis Jack Britton’ with ink stamp ‘The Ring Inc and ‘Warning! This photograph is supplied by International 228, William St. New York’.

148 by 195mm (5¾ by 7¾ inches).

Lewis was an English boxer who twice won the World Welterweight Championship. Statistical Boxing website BoxRec ranking him as the 17th best Welterweight of all time, and the 7th best UK boxer ever. He is a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

In 1914 Lewis went to fight in Australia and around the start of the first world war he moved to America where he appears to have resided until 1920, when he returned to the UK.

Jack Britton was American and known as the ‘Boxing Marvel’. Ernest Hemingway’s short story ‘Fifty Grand’ is based on the Britton/Walker fight in Madison Square Garden. The fights between Lewis and Britton for the world title were particularly notable. Their relationship has been described as one of the greatest rivalries in boxing history, and it was said ’they winced and ducked every time they heard the other man’s name’. From 1915-21 Lewis and Britton fought 20 times, a total of 224 rounds. Crease in right hand corner

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