Les Darcy (1895–1917), boxer, earned his first money in the ring as a fourteen-year- old. By the time he was eighteen, Sydney boxing promoters had begun to import fighters to challenge him. Throughout 1915 and 1916 Darcy won 22 consecutive bouts, in all winning 46 of his 50 professional fights. His toughness, his boyish looks and his humble background quickly made him a national hero – until he was suspected of shirking enlistment. Denied a passport, he stowed away on a ship bound for New York on the eve of the 1916 conscription referendum. He was stripped of his titles, and American promoters dropped him. He became a US citizen and volunteered for the army in April 1917, but a fortnight later was admitted to hospital with a dental infection; soon, he died of pneumonia. After an immense funeral procession in San Francisco, his young body was brought back to Australia. Some 250,000 people are said to have lined Sydney’s streets as his coffin made its way back toward his native Maitland.
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