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William Perry's grave in Dudley

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(Recitative)

 

  1 Bill Perry lived the life God gave,
He's gone to his long rest.
We'll write these words upon his grave
'He fought and beat the best.'		 2 A King he was within the ring,
A songster in Spon Lane;
No more again we'll hear him sing
'My pretty, pretty Jane.'
 3 Ben Caunde 'as gone (of doubtful worth)
And dodging Bendigo.
And Freeman Bold, of giant girth,
And fouling Paddock, too.		 4 Tom Sayers, bravest of the brave,
Has long ago passed on;
Their bodies lie within the grave,
Their fighting souls box on.
  5 That Death! Grim Victor of us all,
He found the Slasher tough!
For never did the Slasher call
' 'Old on, I've had enough.'		  6 'Enough, enough!' he never cried,
But battled toe to toe.
Unflinchingly his fists he plied,
And countered blow with blow.
  7 And, if you have a tear to shed,
Friend, let it be a splasher!
And let it fall for him now dead,
The gallant Tipton Slasher.

The Tipton Slasher was William Perry (1820-1880); born in Tipton in the Black Country between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, he worked on the canal but left it for prize-fighting. He was  Champion of England from 1850 to 1857. Finally defeated by the legendary Tom Sayers, Perry returned to boating. He died from 'lung problems'. If you want more information in the characters mentioned in the poem, putting 'Tipton Slasher' into a search engine will produce many sites.

Tom Sayers was a famous prize-fighter, and lives on in the song 'Heenan and Sayers' whose first verse runs:

  Come all you lovers of the fisticuff
Attention to my song,
For I'll sing to you a verse or two
It won't detain you long.
It's to describe a champion fight,
Your time I now employ,
Which took place between Tom Sayers
And the bold Benicia Boy.

So! Hurrah my boys for Heenan and Tom Sayers we will sing,
For they are the beat and bravest ever fought in a British ring!

Heenan was an Irish-American who came to fight Sayers for a purse of £1,000, and was known as the Benicia Boy. The fight took place at Farnborough on April 17th 1860 and went on for over an hour. By then Heenan could no longer see and Sayers had a broken arm. The crowd intervened at this point and declared the result to be a draw.

  

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Rod Beavon   17 Dean's  Yard   London    SW1P  3PB

e-mail:  rod.beavon@westminster.org.uk