Northern Ireland

How Belfast boxing bout may have saved life of Irish Guard at Dunkirk

Jimmy Magill won three Irish middleweight titles, three ABA titles and three European police titles before retiring in the late 1930s
Jimmy Magill won three Irish middleweight titles, three ABA titles and three European police titles before retiring in the late 1930s Jimmy Magill won three Irish middleweight titles, three ABA titles and three European police titles before retiring in the late 1930s

FOLLOWING the release in cinemas of Christopher Nolan's World War II epic Dunkirk, tales of Irish connections to the dramatic events of 1940 are having the dust blown off their jackets.

And one such story featuring a boxing champion, a Belfast soldier and a German army captain is particularly remarkable.

It begins in 1936 when Jimmy Magill, one of Ireland’s greatest ever amateur fighters, went toe-to-toe with a German Olympic medallist named Richard Vogt.

In front of a sell-out crowd in Belfast’s King’s Hall, the man from the small village of Carncastle, near Larne, was victorious.

Four years later, the war was in full flow when a Belfast-born soldier stepped on a land mine on the battlefields surrounding the French port of Dunkirk.

William Hutchinson, a young member of the Irish Guards, lay in the mud and dirt, his body perforated with shrapnel wounds and half of his left leg missing.

A German army captain approached the wounded soldier, noticed the badge on his uniform and asked where he was from.

"Do you know an Irish boxer called Jimmy Magill?" he said.

Bill had often heard of the great Magill from his father's boxing stories and he nodded to the German officer looking down at him. "VOGT", the name on his uniform read.

Captain Vogt - who would later defeat former world heavyweight champion Max Schmelling in his last ever bout - asked whether, if he was spared, the Belfast man would he return home and convey his regards to the fighter who defeated him that night in the King’s Hall.

He said he would and his Vogt then picked up the wounded soldier, crossed over to British lines and gave instructions that he was to receive priority medical treatment.

Hutchinson returned home following the war and did not pass away until 2002 in the Somme Nursing Home in Belfast.

Amid renewed interest in the battle and evacuation of Dunkirk following the release of Nolan’s critically-acclaimed movie last month, Jimmy Magill's nephew Paul spoke to The Irish News about his unlikely connection to World War II.

"I had never heard about the story from my uncle, but I'm sure he was aware of it. It was actually a nephew of William Hutchinson who got in contact with me," he said.

"He rang me and we exchanged a few letters. He told me the story and when I first heard it, I thought it sounded like something out of a Hollywood film. Like Saving Private Ryan or something. It was incredible."

As well as a talented boxer, Jimmy Magill was a constable with the RUC and he boxed under its affiliation throughout his career.

Over the course of more than amateur 150 bouts, the Carncastle fighter was only defeated nine times.

He won three Irish middleweight titles, three ABA titles and three European police titles, before retiring in the late 1930s.

His career was not without its disappointments, however. Magill was twice selected to box at the Olympics and on both occasions failed to reach the dressing room, never mind the podium.

He was selected for the Irish team for the 1932 games in Los Angeles, but the RUC would not allow it.

Four years later, Irish boxing authorities blocked his selection for the British team during the build-up to the Berlin games, where Richard Vogt won a silver medal.

The sports bar at the PSNI's country club at Newforge was named after Magill in 2004.

Paul Magill says his uncle, who passed away in 1991, seldom spoke of his 'could have been' career, or his unlikely link to the battlefields of northern France.

"I guess that was just his way, he was a quiet man. Although he never mentioned it, I'm sure he knew of the story of William Hutchinson at Dunkirk, and I'm sure he was proud," he said.

* The story of Jimmy Magill and William Hutchinson is featured in the book The Magills of the Meetinghouse by Paul Magill.