TWO of Scotland’s best-known figures, Robert Carlyle and Irvine Welsh, have thrown their weight behind a campaign to honour one of Scotland’s first world champion sportsmen with a permanent statue in his home city.
Boxer Benny Lynch became world flyweight champion in 1935, drawing a reported crowd of more than 100,000 at Glasgow Central station when he returned from his championship fight with Jackie Brown in Manchester, but has never been given a lasting memorial there.
His Gorbals upbringing, which is said to have seen him fight off older lads in the street from the age of nine, is credited with fostering the toughness and determination that helped him to win the British, European and world flyweight titles on September 9 that year.
However, in later years his fortunes fell and he descended into alcoholism — at one point seeking help at Mount Melleray, an Irish monastery.
His 104th listed fight, with Aurel Toma in 1938, saw him knocked out for the first time and his licence was subsequently revoked then withheld because he could not pass fitness tests. He died in 1946 aged 33 after being taken to Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital suffering from respiratory problems and pneumonia, and 2,000 mourners attended his funeral.
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Carlyle, who was tipped in the past to play Gorbals-born Lynch in a biopic, tweeted his support for a statue 80 years after his triumph, saying: “This is long overdue. The man should be remembered and honoured with a statue in Glasgow Central station.”
Welsh, who is a boxer himself, has also shared details of the fundraising efforts with his Twitter following of nearly 200,000 people.
Lynne Lees, who is running a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a statue, says it would be a fitting tribute to “the little king” of the Gorbals who is still remembered with pride and affection. She said: “His early years were tough but he came from a community that saw his talent and helped him nurture it. He fought his way from the streets to the ring and in turn conquered the world. He was known all over the world and some would say he was the best fighter they ever saw in the ring.”
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Hugh McIlvanney, the Sunday Times writer who has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as one of the sport’s greatest observers, welcomed the idea.
“Lynch is a huge figure in the lore of Scottish sport and tangible commemoration of him in his native city is obviously overdue. His self-destructive way of living and his tragically early death naturally gave an extra, bleak resonance to the story that has enthralled so many of his countrymen.
“But there was international recognition in his era — and it survives today among those with accurate knowledge of boxing history — that he was a genuinely great flyweight champion of the world. A statue of such a wonderful wee battler would surely suit Glasgow well.”
Glasgow city council, which is to be asked to help fund the project, said it would consider any proposal put before it.