John Cox

John Cox was one of 14 members of the Hammersmith Amateur Wrestling Club to compete in the wrestling events at the 1908 Olympic Games. Alongside his older brother, William, he was active in the amateur wrestling scene of London in the early 1900s, and competed in the 1908 bantamweight freestyle event, where lost his only match to George Saunders of the Passmore Edwards Settlement Gymnastics Society.

Cox spent his early years in Chelsea, London where he grew up alongside 11 siblings. His father, John, was a baker by profession. He married in 1909 and later worked in the insurance industry as a clerk. Cox died at the relatively premature age of 32 in 1918, leaving two young children under the age of 10, who later went to live with their mother in Africa.