Born at Railway Terrace Clydach Vale on the 12th March
1913. Thomas George Farr was the son of George Farr,
and one of eight children. His mother died when he was
only eight years old and his father when he was eighteen,
after a prolonged illness, which had left him paralysed.
In common with most children at that time he left school
at a young age and went to work in the mines to help support
his family. He hated the life of a miner and soon quit,
working at series of jobs and suffering 'long nightmares
of unemployment'
According to the records he won his first fight in December 1926 against Jack
Lord at Tonypandy over six rounds, making him incredibly only twelve years old.
It was lifelong friend and ex miner Joby Churchill that turned Tommy Farr's life
around by suggesting that he present himself at Joe Gess' boxing booth at Tylorstown.
From the ages of 16 to 18 he worked the boxing booths of South Wales, fighting
four or five times a day against all comers. His record was not outstanding,
and certainly no indicator of the fame that was later to come his way. At eighteen,
realising he would never make his fortune in South Wales he decided to head for
London. As he himself describes he walked to London, arriving with only a few
shillings in his pocket.
After a series of casual ill-paid jobs he returned defeated
to Clydach and the family home. During his time in London
he managed to secure a fight with Eddie Steele, as a substitute
for another welsh boxer who had been injured in training
just prior to the fight. Tommy's first fight in London
turned out to be a disaster, ending when he leaped out
of the ring and ran to the changing room after a punch
from Steele caused him to choke on his gumshield.
After his return to Wales, he continued to fight on the 'Welsh circuit' and on
22nd July 1933 he became Welsh Light Heavyweight champion after beating Randy
Jones (the boxer he replaced at his ill fated London debut) at Tonypandy. He
went on to win the Welsh heavyweight championship in 1936 and the British heavyweight
Championship against Ben Foord in May 1937.
Following on from this he won fights against Max Baer,
the former world heavyweight champion and the German boxer
Walter Neusel. Tommy was at his peak and signed a contract
to fight another former world heavyweight champion, the German
Max Schmeling. However before he fulfilled this contract
there came another offer, one that was to ensure Tommy Farrs'
place in boxing folklore forever, that was a chance to fight
the mighty Joe Louis for the World Heavyweight crown.
The fight took place at Yankee Stadium, New York, on August
30th 1937 in front of a crowd of 36,000 spectators. Of the
300 boxing writes at ringside only one gave Tommy any chance
of defeating the 'Brown Bomber', writing him off as yet another
of Britain's 'horizontal heavyweights'. The excitement in
South Wales and particularly the Rhondda reached fever pitch
and thousands of locals stayed up to listen to the live broadcast
at 3 a.m. local time. Despite nobody outside of his partisan
fans giving him a chance Farr took Louis the full fifteen
rounds and only lost on points. Louis later described Farr
as the toughest fighter he had ever met, and their fight
remains part of Welsh sporting folklore, and is widely regarded
as one of the greatest boxing matches of all time.
After the fight Farr continued to box until he announced his retirement in 1940,
returning briefly ten years later at the age of thirty-six for a comeback, finally
retiring on the 17th May 1953.
Tommy Farr died on St. David's Day 1986 at Shoreham in Sussex. His ashes were
interred in the same grave as his parents, at Trealaw cemetery, under the marble
monument he himself had erected for them, with the inscription, ' In Death reunited'.
