Pat O'Keeffe
Pat O'Keeffe was an English professional boxer who held English and British titles at welterweight and middleweight. His surname was also spelled O'Keefe in contemporary newspaper coverage. His professional career ran from 1902 to 1918 and included bouts in Britain, the United States and Australia between 1907 and 1910. In 1914, he made an unsuccessful bid for the European heavyweight title against Georges Carpentier. During World War I, he joined the British Army and served with the 1st Surrey Rifles, combining recruiting work with physical training duties. In 1918, he won the Lonsdale Belt outright by defeating Bandsman Blake at the National Sporting Club, becoming British middleweight champion and the first boxer to hold the British middleweight Lonsdale Belt outright.
Early life
O'Keeffe was born in Bromley-by-Bow on 17 March 1883. In 1891, he was recorded in the West Ham area with his parents, Patrick and Catherine O'Keeffe. By 1911, he was residing in West Ham and was recorded as single, with his occupation listed as professional boxer.A profile published in Boxing World and Mirror of Life stated that O'Keeffe began boxing as an amateur with the Canning Town Athletic Club in 1901 and turned professional the following year. It listed him as and at the time.
A later profile in the Illustrated Police Budget reported that he won the Columbia Boxing Club open competition.
Professional boxing
Early career: 1902–1907
One of O'Keeffe's earliest recorded fights was against Jack Palmer. O'Keeffe defeated him on two occasions over six rounds in 1902. In 1903, at the age of twenty, he beat Jack Kingsland at the Olympia in London to win the title of welterweight champion of England.In 1906, having fought many of the leading contenders for the British middleweight title, O'Keeffe was selected to contest the championship. He won the title by defeating Mike Crawley in a fight that lasted fifteen rounds.
One month later, O'Keeffe defended the title against Charlie Allum, knocking him out in the sixth round. He lost the belt in his next bout to Tom Thomas at the NSC by a narrow points margin. A year later in Paris, O'Keeffe again defeated Allum by knockout and won £200. The bout was billed as the French middleweight championship, although the claim was not defended.
International career: 1907–1910
After losing the British middleweight championship, O'Keeffe travelled and fought across the United States and Australia. In 1907, he fought world middleweight champion Billy Papke and world welterweight champion Harry Lewis with little more than a month between bouts. The match with Papke in Philadelphia was hard fought and ended in a draw. He lost to Henry Lewis in Boston, Massachusetts by decision, and a profile later that year stated that he had made a favourable impression on American boxing audiences and highlighted his six-round bout with Papke.His next fight was against Willie Lewis, originally scheduled for 19 December 1907, but the police placed an injunction on the venue in New York. The bout went ahead on 23 December 1907. Eugene Corri later wrote that Lewis entered O'Keeffe's dressing room shortly before the fight and joked about striking him "in the belly". O'Keeffe went on to lose the contest by knockout. In February 1908, he returned to England. He placed a notice in the Sporting Life, declaring that he was "here for business", in an article that stated he had contracted malaria in the United States.
Answering O'Keeffe's notice, fellow Canning Town boxer Steve Smith fought him at the Wonderland Français in Paris, with the contest ending in a draw. Less than two weeks later at the same venue, O'Keeffe was disqualified for a low blow in the fourth round against Jeff Thorne.
Later in 1908, O'Keeffe toured Australia with Tommy Burns, the reigning world heavyweight champion. Standing, Burns was often described as one of the shortest men to hold the heavyweight title. Burns had won the title in 1906 and defended it eleven times before losing it to Jack Johnson on Boxing Day 1908, with O'Keeffe acting as his second for the contest.
While in Australia, O'Keeffe and Burns trained together and invited the public to watch exhibition work. O'Keeffe fought a number of contests in Australia, often against heavier opponents, winning two, drawing one and losing three. One of O'Keeffe’s Australian contests, against Ed. Williams in Sydney, attracted an exceptionally large crowd and was marked by serious disorder. Reporting on the bout at the Cyclorama, The Sportsman described spectators forcing entry without paying, with police ultimately intervening to restore order. The contest went the full fifteen rounds, during which Williams was unable to knock O'Keeffe down despite sustained head punishment, while O'Keeffe worked to the body. After an exchange following the final gong, police stopped further disturbance and the referee awarded the decision to Williams on points.
Late career: 1911–1918
O'Keeffe did not fight again in England until 1911, losing on points to Eddie McGoorty over fifteen rounds. McGoorty went on to become world champion in 1915.After this defeat, O'Keeffe won his next five contests between 1911 and 1913. His next loss came by points decision against Private Jim Harris, which he reversed over twenty rounds two months later, after defeating Frank Mantell twice in seven days.
Heavyweight challenge and build-up
Ahead of his 1913 challenge for the British heavyweight title, Sporting Life wrote that O'Keeffe was completing his preparation at Upper Warlingham with other boxers and noted his previous experience as a sparring partner to Tommy Burns. On 4 August 1913, O'Keeffe challenged Bombardier Billy Wells for the British heavyweight championship. Wells outweighed him by almost three stone, and it took fifteen rounds before Wells succeeded in knocking him out.O'Keeffe's next bout was against the young prodigy Georges Carpentier. The contest was billed as the heavyweight championship of Europe, although both men weighed under the light heavyweight limit. O'Keeffe was knocked out in two rounds. He later explained his defeat to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, stating: "He was too big and strong for me."
His next contest came on 2 February 1914, when he faced Henry Reeve for the British middleweight championship. O'Keeffe won on points over twenty rounds. Reeve later moved up to the light heavyweight division and won the British championship in 1916 against Dick Smith. In March 1914, O'Keeffe and Bombardier Wells were reported to have boxed in an exhibition before King George V.
O'Keeffe successfully defended his middleweight title two months later against Nichol Simpson. In May of the same year, he defended the title again by defeating Jim Sullivan, earning £650 for the contest. In March 1915, O'Keeffe knocked out the heavyweight Joe Beckett in eight rounds. In May 1915, he met Bandsman Blake and knocked him out in the thirteenth round. At that stage Blake had lost to only one opponent, Bombardier Billy Wells. Writing in Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, Corinthian described O'Keeffe as a methodical boxer who used a straight left and a high guard to control distance early, before increasing his pace once he had assessed an opponent.
Following this, O'Keeffe had a return bout with Sullivan. Although billed as being for the British middleweight title, the contest was not endorsed by the NSC and the Lonsdale Belt was therefore not at stake. The pair met again on 21 February 1916, when Jimmy Wilde described the contest as the most punishing he had ever witnessed. O'Keeffe gained the decision over twenty rounds.
On 22 May 1916, O'Keeffe fought Blake again at the NSC in a £500 match that went the full 20 rounds. The Sheffield Independent described the contest as "not a good one", reporting that Blake's clinching and holding drew warnings from the referee and that the verdict was received with surprise by many in the audience. O'Keeffe lost both the championship and his Lonsdale Belt.
On 28 January 1918, O'Keeffe fought his final professional bout, defeating Blake at the NSC to win the Lonsdale Belt outright, along with an NSC pension.
A later retrospective recalled that the contest took place during an air raid warning in London, with bombs falling close enough for plaster to flake from the NSC.
An article published two days later reported on tributes paid to O'Keeffe at the NSC, with Arthur Frederick Bettinson congratulating him as both a sportsman and a man. O'Keeffe replied that securing the Lonsdale Belt outright had been one of his ambitions, and stated that he would now concentrate on charity and family life.
Military service during World War I
After the outbreak of World War I, O'Keeffe enlisted in the British Army and joined the 1st Surrey Rifles, part of the 21st County of London Regiment. Press reports described him as initially holding the rank of lance corporal, later promoted to corporal and ultimately completing his wartime service as a sergeant. He was retained on home duties, where he combined recruiting work with the training and drilling of new recruits, and also served for a period as a military policeman. According to press accounts, the decision to keep him from overseas service was taken by the authorities, who considered his popularity and effectiveness as a recruiter to be of particular value.In addition to his duties within the regiment, O'Keeffe appeared at public patriotic events. In 1915 he took part in a Grand Patriotic Rally held at the Imperial Hall in East Dulwich, where he appeared both on film and in person as part of a recruiting and patriotic programme organised in support of the war effort. Contemporary reports identified him as a lance corporal and noted that the band of the 1st Surrey Rifles accompanied the event.
O'Keeffe also appeared in large-scale public fundraising events during the war. In September 1915 he was advertised as taking part in a Volunteer Training Corps athletic and boxing display at the Aston Villa Football Grounds in Birmingham, organised in aid of wounded soldiers, the Red Cross and Volunteer Training Corps equipment funds. He was listed as appearing alongside leading professional boxers including Jimmy Wilde and Johnny Basham.
A detailed 1915 profile in the Daily News described O'Keeffe training in a Surrey village ahead of his bout with Bandsman Blake. The report noted that he had become a well-known local figure, with children regularly gathering to watch him spar and use gym equipment. It recorded that he credited Army routine and drill with maintaining his fitness, explaining that when training recruits he did not merely give orders but demonstrated the exercises himself, which he said had "done me a world of good".
O'Keeffe was also advertised as appearing in a wartime boxing film. Cinema listings promoted The Khaki Contest, billed as showing him boxing Lance Corporal Jim Sullivan.
He was also active in recruiting. One article recounted an encounter on London Bridge which became widely quoted in the sporting press:
A separate report described O'Keeffe performing duties as a military policeman while stationed around St Albans, noting that he wore the initials "M.P." on his sleeve and remained willing to meet leading boxing challengers if terms could be agreed while he was in uniform.
Army life at the regiment's base in Camberwell was reported to suit him well. With regular meals, strict routine and drill, access to sparring partners and space to train, he was described as thriving and being popular with the men.
O'Keeffe also took part in morale-boosting activities for wounded soldiers, including helping to organise an excursion boat trip on the Thames. In addition, he continued to promote boxing during the war, arranging an entertainment at Chatham that featured both service and civilian bouts.