I remember Jack Forster from his latter days on the Norwich fruit market.
I would have been about 10 in the mid 1950s when my father, the late George Shepheard, pointed Jack out to me on the Norwich market. My recollection of what dad said about Jack's boxing career is hazy, but I seem to recollect that Forster fought one of British boxing's greats, Jock McEvoy (1908-71) who was the middleweight, and later, light-heavyweight champion. Jack lost, but that challenge must have been the greatest part of his career.
Jack would have been born around the same time as McEvoy. He had the classic appearance of the boxer with a long career. His face was like a rock over which an ice-pink glaze had been poured, and, even though he had the slightest of limps, there was still something athletic in his gait.
He served on a fruit stall quite near The Walk and not far in from the fish stalls. I expect there must be folk alive who worked there with him, but can tell they us about his halcyon days in the ring?
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