Bill Hayes

As an 18-year-old tea packer, William Hayes won the Shop Assistants’ Athletic Association featherweight wrestling title at Forest Gate, London, in 1909. This would appear to be the only title of significance that he won, other than those at his local club, St. Matthew’s AC. Having stepped up to lightweight, Hayes competed in the 1911 German Gymnastic Society Annual Championships but was beaten in the second round by the eventual winner E. G. Saxby of the London AWC. The following year. Hayes went to Stockholm as part of the Great Britain Greco-Roman wrestling squad but, like the other members of the team, came home without a medal.

Following the Olympics, Hayes emigrated to Australia, where his mother and brother were already living. He settled in Boonoonar, Victoria with his wife where he became a wheat farmer. He continued to be involved in wrestling, competing in the Victoria Amateur Championships for the Mildura Harriers, and the Adelaide 1935 Australian National Games in the light heavyweight class. Hayes also ran for political office in the 1930s. Following his retirement from farming in 1937, he sold his land and moved to Sherpparton, Victoria. Eventually settling in Palm Beach, Queensland, he died there in 1972.