Frederick Virtue

Bermondsey-born Frederick Virtue had a brief amateur boxing career that would have been longer had the War years not intervened. He started boxing at the Decima Club, along with his younger brother George, before joining the 22nd County of London Regiment as an 18-year-old in 1915. During his four years in the Army he saw a year’s service in France in 1916-17, and was awarded both the British War and Victory medals. Upon his demobilisation in 1919, Virtue resumed his boxing career and in 1920 fought at the ABA Championships, but lost in the second round to the eventual champion, and fellow Londoner, Harry Groves.

A few months before the 1920 Antwerpen Olympics, Virtue was a member of the England squad that met Scotland at Edinburgh in the first international between the two countries at Edinburgh. At the Olympics, he lost his opening flyweight bout to Ted Zegwaard of the Netherlands. Virtue served on the committee of the Stansfeld Boxing Club.