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.

• The Debut of Battling Billson
• The Return of Battling Billson
• The Exit of Battling Billson
• The Come-Back of Battling Billson
• Something Fishy