Dave Thomas

Heavyweight boxer Dave Thomas was an established England international by the time he competed in the 1960 Roma Olympics. He had also won a silver medal at the 1958 Cardiff British Empire and Commonwealth Games, when he lost to the South African Daan Bekker, the double Olympic medallist. Thomas was also the 1959 ABA heavyweight champion, and that same year reached the final of the European Championships at Lucerne, where he lost to the Soviet fighter Andrey Abramov, the three-times European champion.

Thomas won the first of three consecutive ABA titles in 1957 and was the first man since Henry Dearsley in 1882-84 to achieve the feat. Thomas came close to a fourth title in 1960 when he thought he had knocked out the Bristol-based Welshman Len James in the semi-final, but it was ruled that Thomas had thrown a low punch and he was disqualified. Despite not winning the 1960 ABA title, Thomas was still selected for the Olympics but lost to Czechoslovakia’s Josef Němec, who Thomas beat in the semi-final of the 1959 European Championships.

Thomas was nicknamed “Dustman” because he was, in the early part of his career, a dustman in the Paddington area of London. He later became a bank messenger, and then a London taxi driver. Thomas died in 1980 while jogging in London’s Regent’s Park. He was 43 at the time.