Journal
of Combative Sport, Nov 2007
Death under the Spotlight:
The Manuel
Velazquez Boxing
Fatality Collection
Edward
Wilmot (?-1866)
Text
copyright © EJMAS 2007. All rights reserved. Please submit
additions or corrections to Joseph Svinth at jsvinth@ejmas.com.
Professional
Fatal
bout: October 9, 1866
Date
of death: October 9, 1866
Cause
of death: Rupture of an artery on the right side of the brain
The
bout was with gloves. The venue was Shaw’s, in Windmill-street,
Haymarket, where the bouts took place in an upstairs room. Because
prizefighting was illegal in Britain, the match was advertised as a
“protracted sparring match.” Although there were just six rounds,
the two men fought for about an hour. In the end, Wilmot either fell
or was knocked down. As he fell, he struck his head against a post
that was in the center of the ring. When he got up, he said did not
feel well, so his second stopped the fight. Wilmot then went to the
hospital, where he died five hours later. Cause of death was a
rupture of an artery on the right side of the brain.
The
subsequent court case, Regina
v. Young and others,
(1866) 10 Cox 371, established the legal precedent that death “caused
by an injury received in a friendly sparring match, which is not a
thing likely to cause death... is not manslaughter, unless the
parties fight on until the sport becomes dangerous” (Roscoe, 1888,
912).
Also,
because the bout took place in private rooms rather than outdoors,
the ruling meant that indoor sparring matches would not be considered
a public nuisance. There had been cases of fence-breaking and
illegal timber removal during earlier outdoor prizefights, and after
1860, most British railway companies refused to hire special trains
for prizefight excursions. Indeed, the practice of hiring special
prizefight trains was specifically prohibited by the Regulation of
Railways Act of 1868: “Any railway company that shall knowingly let
for hire any special train for the purpose of conveying parties to be
present at any prize fight... shall be liable to a penalty... of such
sum not exceeding five hundred pounds, and not less than two hundred
pounds” (Godefroi and Shortt, 1869, 526).
Sources:
London Times, October 30, 1866; London Times, November
3, 1866; Edward W. Cox, Reports of Cases in Criminal Law...
volume X, 1864-1867 (London: Law Times Office, 1868), 371-373;
Charles Dickens, All the Year Round, volume 20 (London:
Chapman and Hall, 1868), 379; Henry Roscoe, Roscoe’s Digest of
the Law of Evidence in Criminal Cases, Eighth American Edition,
volume II (Philadelphia: T. & J.W. Johnson, 1888); Montagu
Stephen Williams, Leaves of A Life; Being the Reminiscences of
Montagu Williams, Q.C. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1890),
220-223; Henry Godefroi and John Shortt, The Law of Railway
Companies, Comprising the Companies Clauses (London: Stevens and
Haynes, 1869), 526.
