Wilberforce Billson, "Battling Billson," onetime trimmer on the
tramp steamer Hyacinth, enormous red-headed public house
brawler discovered by S.F. Ukridge and unsuccessfully
managed as a boxer from Bermondsey in
The Debut of Battling Billson,
The Return of Battling Billson,
The Exit of Battling Billson and
The Come-Back of Battling Billson. A
peerless scrapper with muscles like iron bands, but of the very maximum
boneheadedness. In love with Flossie Burns in The
Debut of Battling Billson and in The Return of
Battling Billson, where he wins £30 for defeating Alf Todd. Falls under
influence of revivalist Evan Jones in The Exit of
Battling Billson and takes up crusade against drink and boxing. Back in
the ring in The Come-Back of Battling Billson,
he makes short work of One-Round Peebles, after which he marries Flossie
(her family name here is Dalrymple) and goes into the jellied eel line in
Whitechapel. Permanently retired from boxing in Something Fishy, he runs a pub near
Shoreditch, and persuades Roscoe Bunyan to carry out his plan to marry his
daughter Emma.
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