WRESTLING HERITAGE

Not to be confused with Ajit Singh. Amarjit was a  1970s light heavyweight from Punjab who settled in Leicester where he formed a tag partnership with his cousin Joginda Singh known as the Bengal Tigers. They were trained by their friend and former welterweight Gentleman Jim Lewis, who took the role of their manager.

See the entry for  Wild Man of Borneo

See the entry for Tiger Singh

Highly rated Indian heavyweight from the Punjab, he stood over six feet tall and was almost as wide. Trained by his older brother, Fazal Daula, Daula was at his peak when he made his earlier visits to Britain in the 1930s. "Referee," an Australian publication wrote in August, 1937, that following his tour of Australia "Strangler  will journey to England and put the kybosh on Tiger Daula, a big Indian at present busily engaged in breaking the bones of Pukka Sahibs in London." We have no record of such a match ever taking place but Daula did have wins over Francis St Clair Gregory, Bulldog Bill Garnon, Ray St Bernard and Martin Bucht.  

We discover our first report of Tiger Daula in February, 1937, wrestling in Plymouth and said to be the Champion of India. He certainly made an impression and was nicknamed "Uncrowned Champion of the World."

The barefooted Indian worked his way around Britain as Tiger Daula, arriving first in 1936  before returning to India in 1939. Returned in 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1963 as Daula Singh, working for Joint Promotions, with televised matches against Bill Verna (in September, 1957) and Dave Armstrong (in October, 1957). 

See the entry for Tiger Singh

See the entry for  Wild Man of Borneo

See the entry for   Sabu

One time farmer and 1970s light-heavyweight from Punjab settled in Leicester where he formed a tag partnership with his cousin Amarjit Singh known as the Bengal Tigers, trained by former welterweight Gentleman Jim Lewis who appeared in the ring as their manager. 

Read our extended tribute: Preston’s Majestic Pride

A photo album from Ricky Singh, son of wrestler Rajendra Singh.

Another of the popular Indian wrestlers who worked for both Joint Promotions and the independents in the 1960s and 1970s. Shem was the brother of Ajit Singh and a skilful but unspectacular middleweight. Born in Calcutta in 1929 he came to the UK from his home in Singapore  in 1949, when he was nineteen years old . Shem's father had first visited Britain in 1938, but returned with his family in 1949. He was a prominent member of the community in Manchester and founder member of the first Sikh Temple in Manchester.  

Working in a factory and as a dock worker Shemsher Singh Bhakar's first love was  wrestling.  Although he had wrestled in India and Singapore it wasn’t until 1958 that Shem Singh made his UK debut, defeating Tiger Woods in Macclesfield.  

Shem continued wrestling in Britain during the 1960s and ended his career on the independent circuit in the early seventies. Shemsher Singh (right)  is pictured here with the  boxing legend Randolph Turpin, who turned to a wrestling career after his successful boxing career. Shemsher wrestled him twice, losing the first bout and then drawing the second.

One of the 1970 and 1980s greats who used a variety of names from Gilbert, through Gil and Dalibir, to be known as the hard-working British Heavyweight Champion Tiger Singh.  

Gained his international wings when part of the Yorkshire contingent in the 1974 German tournaments.  Never achieved much success at all in Germany  and even by 1978 he was losing there to Barry Douglas, whom he would have been expected to defeat every time in the UK.  In this sense he is the inverse of Caswell Martin.  Singh feuded regularly with the similarly styled Ray Steele.  Probably too regularly, an overdose of straight wrestling as an antidote to the unbelievable excesses of Big Daddy and others.  One wonders whether the Crabtrees required their heavyweight champion to bottle any charisma to protect their elder member.  Oft criticised for lacking colour Tiger Singh did bring much needed credibility t o professional wrestling at a time it was sadly lacking elsewhere. 

See the entry for   Chief Thunderbird

Here's a man who certainly deserves a place in the A-Z but about whom information is scarce. A bald headed middleweight/light heavyweight from Poland he appeared in Britain in the late 1950s. It's easy to understand why he chose to use the name Ski rather than his family name of Sceszepanski . 

At the time of coming to Britain he was already an experienced forty year old on mainland Europe, where he was particularly well known in Germany. On arrival in Britain in 1958 he unsuccessfully challenged Tommy Mann for the world middleweight championship. The match took place at the Music Hall, Aberdeen, and it was reported that Joe had the beating of Mann as far as skill was concerned. Mann changed to very aggressive tactics, finally overcoming the challenger in the tenth round. Mann was booed by the Aberdeen fans as the result was announced.

Josef went on to have a mixed bag of results against classy opponents such as Tony Lawrence, Harry Fields, Bert Royal and Mick McManus. The list could go on because he spent much of  the years between 1958 and 1962 working in Britain, facing just about all the middleweights and light heavies of note as he travelled throughout the country, with a further championship challenge against Tommy Mann and European welterweight champion Alan Colbeck. Following retirement from wrestling Josef took up refereeing in his adopted homeland of Germany.