Ray Cazaux

Ray Cazauk was the Northern Counties bantamweight wrestling champion at the age of 18, and a year later won the first of his eight British titles. As the British champion in 1936, he gained selection onto the British team for the Berlin Olympics that year. His biggest success on the international stage came at Sydney in 1938, when he won the bantamweight bronze medal at the Empire Games. As war broke out in 1939, Cazaux was the reigning British champion and, at the start of the hostilities, joined the newly formed Bradford 122 Field Regiment Royal Artillery. He saw service abroad and was taken prisoner in Singapore.

Although born in Liverpool, of a French father, Cazaux made his home on the other side of the Pennines and lived in Bradford, where he was a bakery manager. He resumed his wrestling career after the War, and competed in the 1948 London Olympics, 12 years after making his Olympic début.