Bryn Phillips, Boxer & Dog Handler
Bryn was born in Haverfordwest in July 1931, and came to live in Plas Y Gamil Road, Goodwick in the same year, as his father had obtained a job there as manager of a nursery. After WW2, Bryn’s father bought the nursery which became the family business. Bryn left Goodwick school at 14 and worked in the nursery, together with his father & elder brother, for the next 13 years.
Ever since his schooldays, Bryn had practised hand balancing and tumbling and joined a troupe of acrobats run by Tommy George, which gave shows all over the County. Training sessions were held in Letterston, and Bryn would cycle to and from his training sessions several times per week! Another member of the troupe was a weight lifter, Yorrie Evans; Bryn soon started weight training which did much to improve his hand balancing!
In 1948 he was runner-up in a British Amateur Weight Lifting competition to find Britain’s best “All round Junior Weight Lifter”. Bryn was also a member of the Goodwick Youth Club; the leader of the club was also the local Scout Master and Bryn was soon asked to take over as temporary Scout Master when the original Scout Master left the area. Bryn also liked running as part of his training, & cycling with his friends Ken Grace, Derek Hughes, Dai Panting and Keith Shipton.
In 1949, Bryn met Sybil Evans of Oxford House, Goodwick, who was to become his wife. Meeting her was something which changed his views about what he wanted to do in the future and he decided that perhaps his parents were right in trying to persuade him that there was no future in hand- balancing!
Bryn became interested in boxing after he visited the Haverfordwest May fair on St Thomas’ Green. On arrival, he was attracted to the boxing booth and the prize money of 30 shillings (£1.50p). This was Bryn’s first try try at boxing and in the Haverfordwest October fair of that year -1949- he beat Joe Rogers in three rounds! Having caught the boxing bug, Bryn joined the Merlin’s Bridge Boxing Club, (near Haverfordwest). Several amateur fights followed in Pembroke Dock, Ammanford, Trecwn and Haverfordwest.
His first paid fight was at Cardigan which he won by a knock out against Eddie Stevens of Cardiff in the 3rd round. Bryn continued to box in all the fairground booths in Wales for the next 6 years. In the meantime, Bryn was granted a professional boxer’s licence by the Boxing Board of Control and his first professional fight was in the Market Hall, Carmarthen on April 14th 1952 when he beat a welter weight, Harold Urch over six rounds.
Towards the end of 1953 Bryn signed up under he management of Bill Dixie of Crew who entered Bryn for a competition staged by the National Sporting Club in London, when the winner would be awarded a gold watch by the “Boxing News”. The final of the competition was held on St David’s day 1954 when Bryn was so proud to win the “Boxing News” gold watch!
After suffering several injuries to his cheek bone and left hand, Bryn had a long lay-off and could not fight again until October 1954 when he fought against Teddy Best of Cardiff in Carmarthen; Bryn was beaten on points over eight rounds and again injured his left hand in the process. A good friend of Bryn’s, Billy Hall, had seen the fight and introduced Bryn to Len Davies (an ex Canadian Boxer who kept the Dinas Arms pub in Lower Fishguard). Len took over Bryn’s training even constructing a gym for Bryn in one of the back rooms of the pub which Bryn continued to use up until the time that he retired from boxing.
In May 1955, Bryn had a complicated operation on his left hand; after the operation, Bryn had serious doubts about carrying on with his boxing but in November 1955 he boxed Johnny King of Birmingham and having no further trouble with his left hand, beat him on points over 6 rounds. Other fights took place over the coming years, but more injuries to his eye and left thigh made Bryn decide to retire from boxing in August 1957. He did, however, have one last fight early in 1958 when he boxed at a professional show in Haverfordwest against Danny Larty from Ghana which Bryn won on points over 6 rounds. This victory did not make him change his mind and he stuck to his decision to retire.
Although then working as a Salesman/Collector with S/U stores, Bryn had not planned to join the police force. He happened to call in in at the Police Headquarters (in those days in Haverfordwest Castle) for a chat with some of his policeman friends who had known him since his boxing days. Jokingly, he said he had called “to join the police force”. Taking him at his word, he was sent home with leaflets and an application form! That evening, Bryn and his wife decided that perhaps this would be a good idea and within 12 days (this was in November 1959) Bryn was on his way to Bridgend to start a training course and on the following Saturday he travelled to Pembroke Dock to begin active duties as a policeman; three weeks later, the family moved to live in Pembroke Dock.
In the early 1960s the Pembrokeshire Police force was one of the few police forces in the country that did not have police dogs and when in 1963 the Police Committee agreed that police dogs would be an asset to the force, Bryn immediately applied for one of the posts as dog handler, and was successful. He was sent to Bridgend with his colleague John Richards, to collect the two 4- month – old pups Asta & Ace. Bryn had the bitch pup and called her Abi although her official name was “Pemcom Asta”. When the two men came back from the Police Dog Training School at Stafford with the dogs, they created a lot of interest both within the force and with the public, especially as the two dogs were used in various displays at many events all over the force area.
Bryn Phillips’ career took him from Pembrokeshire to becoming a Sergeant in the Dogs Section of Bristol City police, later becoming Inspector in charge of the Mounted and Dogs section of the South Yorkshire Police. In 1977 he became Director and Chief Inspector at the Home Office Police Dog Training School in Stafford and also spent time in Pakistan advising on police dog training. He retired in 1987 and in 1999 wrote his autobiography “A Police Dog Handler’s Story” from which this extract is taken with kind permission.
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That is a very well researched ‘lifespan’ of Bryn Phillips’ career- from boxer to a senior position in the Police Constabulary.
First met Bryn in his early days on one of his training runs from Goodwick via Manorowen St.Nicholas, Trefasser & Llanwda! He would stop and chat with ‘us kids’(!) at his turn off point on the St David’s Road at Brwynant – was always encouraging us to go running, which showed his passion in it as part of his boxer training.
A few years on, I joined the 1st Goodwick Scouts, and of course, he became our ‘Skip’. His enthusiasm in encouraging us to exercise, and also help out in the Community was boundless.
A great guy. Aye.
I knew both Bryn and Sybil very well. I spent many an hour with them when they lived in Maine St. Goodwick. Lovely Couple. So sorry to hear he has passed away.
Thank you for the lovely article about my Dad, he sadly passed away in Dec 2017 but I know he would pleased to know this article has been published on this page. Although he moved away from Fishguard he never forgot his roots and my Mum still misses not living in Goodwick.
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