Frank Meachem

Frank Meachem started boxing in 1924 at the age of 17, while serving in the 24th London Regiment of the Territorial Army (TA), and he later went on to win the TA featherweight title. A Civil Servant with the Post Office, Meachem was also a Civil Service boxing champion and in 1927 reached the first of four ABA finals, only to lose the featherweight title to Fred Webster. Luck was on Meachem’s side in both 1928 and 1929, however, when he was champion after his two opponents Fred Perry and F. J. Adams respectively, were both disqualified.

Meachem only got as far as the ABA semi-final in 1930. He went to the British Empire Games in Canada, however, and came away with the featherweight gold medal, after beating Laurie Stevens of South Africa. Meachem stepped up to lightweight in 1931 and the following year won his third ABA title by beating Birmingham’s George Wakelam.

Meachem announced his retirement from championship boxing just before the 1933 ABAs, and towards the end of the year he turned professional. He remained working for the Post Office at the time and the majority of his early professional fights were in the London area, where he lived. In a career from 1934-46, he had 86 professional fights, with a 43-34-9 record. One of his fights was against Len Wickwar in 1935, which was was just one of Wickwar’s world record 471 professional contests.