@ruslan-pashayev cheers mate long time no speak. Just gearing up for another few months on the family tree. Hope all is well with

I've also uncovered this. https://issuu.com/wlct/docs/pf39 Take a look at pages 40-41, the letter entitled "Marylebone Village". Embedded here for ease - looks like Billy Beech ran a gym of some sort

Great, thanks Ron. Is there any way to ascertain which promotion would have overseen when Billy got the belt or is it the case that there mightn't have been one?

That's great. Do you have the original poster or is it just an image on file?

@RON HISTORYO....Time Cop After more work on the family tree I uncovered one of Elizabeth's siblings on the census using Thomas as a middle name in childhood. I need to do more work to see if they ever used it as their first name later in life

Another mystery around Billy Beech/Jack Harrison. In the picture I shared earlier in the thread, Billy is wearing his lightweight championship belt. The picture is estimated to be from 1935 as that's when we can prove he held it. It's the same belt awarded to Jack Alker in 1932 that, as far as we can tell, he held in an unbeaten run until at least 1936. So, the facts I have at this stage seem to contradict each other. Billy held the title in 35. Alker also is supposed to have held it throughout 32-36 and wasn't beaten. The belt is the same one as Alker's as I have a picture of Alker wearing it too. Do we know if Billy ever faced & beat Alker to win the belt? Could Alker have been called away in 1935 (to go to Africa where the army was active knowing that Billy was older at this time and unlikely to have served and therefore held it on an interim basis)? Could there have been 2 belts both identical in name? Here is the picture of both men wearing the same belt. Billy Beech & Jack Alker both wearing the same belt Keeping in mind that 1935 is the year in question around Billy winning the title. I noticed that on Alkers bio page that in August 1935 there was a lightweight title match held in Liverpool featuring Alker but the opponent and result are unknown. Could this have been when Billy won the title? I also see in 1935 that Jack dislocated his shoulder in a match. Might this have resulted in a lay-off that allowed Billy to gain the title? Either way, so far I have no records of a match between Alker and Beech. For Billy to win the title and Alker to regain presumably there'd need to have been at least 2 bouts between them?

@RON HISTORYO....Time Cop Billy "Jack Harrison" or Billy "Ted" Beech? I know that Billy/Jack would say he was from loads of different places or at least that's what I've learned with regards his bouts. He'd be billed as being from a few different places. However Billy/Jack isn't connected with Elizabeth Rigby. Elizabeth married Ike (Billy/Jack's brother). I don't know anything about her other than what I've got on the family tree. Based on my research she had 7 siblings, 1 sister and 6 brothers however none of the brothers were named Tommy or Thomas. We've got John, James, William, Richard, Edward and Joseph. Sister was Ellen. Based on the documentation I've found she was born in Shevington, Lancs which is 30 miles south-west of Padiham. I've got her on 2 censuses living at home with her family prior to marrying Ike and no mention of a Tommy or Thomas on either. Shevington is where Ike and brother Billy initially travelled to after they left Biddulph, Staffs presumably to find work in the mines. Ike pops up on the census there living in a house with just his mother in 1911 living at 27 Broad O'Th' Ln. at 20 years old with his mother, Minnie. He's working in the mines and he married Elizabeth in 1913. I'm sure there are a lot of Rigbys, maybe a cousin of Elizabeth?

@RON HISTORYO....Time Cop Here's a pic of Ike Beech much later in life at the wedding of his daughter (Elsie O'Connor nee Beech) who was my paternal grandmother and the sister of Billy "Ted" Beech. Based on the marriage records, this picture is from 1947 and I believe the wedding was in West Bank in Widnes at St. Mary's.

@Hack (Moderator) it gets confusing with there being 2 William Beech's as well. Particularly on Ancestry doing the family tree as people put the wrong things together. So Isaac "Ike" Beech and William "Jack Harrison" Beech were brothers from Biddulph who moved up to Shevington, Wigan. Ike subsequently moved to Sutton Manor and settled on Milton St and Ike's son William "Billy"/"Ted" Beech was born. Any info you want from the family tree let me know All credit to Ruslan C Pashayev in America for digging out the clippings I last shared where it mentions that Billy Beech and Jack Harrison were the same man.

Cheers! I've checked on Ancestry and that looks correct based on the records. I wonder how well his "Wild Jack" moniker suited him. I'd love to have a time machine so I could go back, talk to them and watch them in action. William "Billy" Beech (Ike Beech's son) fought under a few names other than Dr Death including the 'Red Devil', 'Executioner', 'Black Arrow' or 'Hangman', too. Not sure if there'd be any other records under those names, too. I was speaking to his daughter (my Dad's cousin) and she remembers one time him fighting as Dr. Death and the Teddy Boys were after him trying to unmask him. She said he loved it all! It only clicked last night looking at the picture of Ted in front of the sign pulling a fearsome pose that he was scheduled to fight Randolph Turpin (ex world champion boxer). Sometimes the little nuggets are staring you in the face for years and you don't realise. Turpin's story was tragic towards the end so didn't get talked about as much as other boxers with what happened but what a connection. Paul Lincoln was Dr Death as was Billy/Ted on occasion (I imagine other wrestlers were, too) and Lincoln was also promoter for Turpin so it links the 3 of them (Turpin, Lincoln and Ted).

Seeing the poster jogged my memory of a relative telling me a long time ago. I often wondered whether switching from catch was a common thing

@RON HISTORYO....Time Cop reading the poster about 47 hear old Billy has jogged my memory to a long-forgotten story from a relative. He would wrestle under different names, one of them was "Jack Harrison" often prefixed with mad/wild. That led me to find this: https://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/hharrison.htm Jack Harrison In March, 1931, when Jack Harrison lost to Billy Riley on the first All-In Wrestling show at the Winter Gardens, Southport, he was billed as Northern Counties Middleweight Champion, another of those mysterious regional titles that seemed to come and go through thin air. Usually billed from Wigan, we have found alternative hometowns of  Bury, Stoke on Trent and Tyneside. Accounts tell of a tough wrestler described on occasions as “Wild Jack.”  Only in the surreal reality of pro wrestling could we find the erstwhile Northern Middleweight Champion billed as “Light Heavyweight Champion of the World” in 1935, a few weeks later defending the “British Junior Lightweight Championship,” and later in the same year “holder of a light heavyweight championship belt given by the West Houghton Nursing Association.”  All wrestling codology, of course, but a clear indication that this busy worker of the 1930s was an accomplished wrestler.

Amazing, if this is Billy senior he would have been 47 years old by this time. Was that typical of the era? It couldn't be his nephew Billy as he would've only been 14 or so (I do know he started wrestling around that age but given the description of being the hero of a thousand battles it seems more likely to be Billy senior).

@SaxonWolf Thanks. I've got no way to contact @RON HISTORYO....Time Cop directly so I hope he sees this.

Thanks SaxonWolf. Yes Billy junior wrestled under a few different names; Billy, Babe, Ted, Dr Death are a few from memory! I will see if I can contact Ron directly on here to see if he can shed any light. I'm struggling even to find a date of death for Billy senior via all the records on Ancestry.