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Save St John's Church
TIPTON SLASHER 
The Tipton Slasher was William Perry (1820-1880); born in Tipton in the Black Country between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, he worked on the canal but left it for prize-fighting. He was Champion of England from 1850 to 1857. Finally defeated by the legendary Tom Sayers, Perry returned to boating. An interesting Tipton Slasher link is: Find a Gravewww.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=gSearch&page: Type in Tipton Slasher and then scroll down a few names to get to him, click on his name to get some interesting facts and a portrait drawing of his face. Another fairly new and very interesting Tipton Slasher link including details of a ghostly siting and loads of William Perry descendants and research enquiries, amazing how interested we all still are in this great man! The Sturdy Soapbox: Ghostly sightings of the Tipton Slasher A fascinating article was written by the famous local historian Professor Carl Chinn in 2004 who amazingly discovered that he is related to the Tipton Slasher, reproduced here for your interest. THE FIGHTER WHO SURVIVED TAKING IT ON THE CHINN By Dr Carl Chinn, Black Country Memories, Express and Star, Thursday January 22nd, 2004 When I was a kid I never knew my Grandad Perry to walk. Grandad had been struck down by multiple sclerosis when he was in his forties and about the last time he wasn’t in a wheelchair was when he walked Our Mom down the aisle in 1954. Now, this wasn’t something we went round bragging about. Coming from the east side of Brummagem, we knew about the Black Country and that Tipton was in it and that was about it. And we’d also heard about Jack the Ripper and so in our childish minds we thought we’d got someone in our family who went round some place called Tipton slashing people with a knife. For years Grandad impressed upon us the need to be proud of our relationship to the Tipton Slasher but we didn’t take much notice until just before Grandad died. It was his last Christmas with us, although we didn’t know that. I was sixteen and Our Darryl was just fifteen.We’d gone up into Birmingham city centre to buy presents and, as we always did when we were up town we went to Hudson’s bookshop. It was a magical place, like an Aladdin’s Cave with little rooms above and below ground, filled with shelves stacked with the treasure of books of all kinds.Suddenly it was as if one book jumped out to us and leaped into our hands. It was called The Tipton Slasher and was by Tom Langley. It was the winter of 1972, just a year or so after decimalisation and the price on the book was still five shillings. Me and Our Kid couldn’t catch our breath. There was a Tipton Slasher. It wasn’t just a story made up by Our Grandad and this relation was important enough to have been written about.We grabbed hold of the book and bought it without looking at it. When we got home we couldn’t wait to tell Our Mom and her sister, Our Lynne. We all sat down and as fast as we could we rushed through it to find out about the Tipton Slasher. Now as any Black Country chap and wench could tell you, the Tipton Slasher was one of the greatest of all bare-fisted boxing champions of England. He got his name because he came from Tipton and he slashed with his right hook, but his real name was Bill Perry. Dead excited, we thought “he’s got the same surname as Our Grandad!” So, without telling Grandad we’d got the book we started to quiz him about what he knew about his people. All Grandad could tell us was that his own father was a Thomas Perry, who was a Black Country Man who’d been a drummer in the Boer war and who’d come to Brum as a young boy.Grandad knew little more bar that his own grandfather was a William Perry and that he’d been named after his uncle, Bill Perry the famed Tipton Slasher. So what we did then was write to Mr Langley telling him what little we knew and asking him if he could confirm that Our Grandad was related to the Tipton Slasher. Mr Langley must have been a kind man to write back to a pair of Brummagem lads who dayn’t know A from a bull’s foot. But get back he did.He’d got in touch with a very old lady who was a niece or great niece of the Tipton Slasher and she’s confirmed that he’d had a cousin called William. Any road up, we wrapped up the book for Grandad for Christmas, along with Mr Langley’s letter. We had to open the present for Grandad as he could hardly move his arms by now and we had to let him know what it was as his eyes were failing.When he heard it was a book on the Tipton Slasher it was as if a sparkler had lit up his face. Our Grandad was in his oiltot. Everything he’d passed on to us was vindicated. Grandad never swore, but all he did say was was “God blige me. I told y’ dayn I. I told y’ we was related to the Tipton Slasher. Our Grandad died that February coming. When Our Mom opened up his little purse after he’d gone there was just a few coins in it. Amongst them were two florins. Our Kid and me had one each. Mine is by me now as I write this. Our Grandad had no money to leave us. He had no property to will us, nor had he fine jewels or fine things for us to inherit. But if Our Grandad had nothing material to give us he left us things which were much more worthy. He left us his example of good humour and bravery in never bowing down to a vile illness. He left us his words, the words of a west midlander who ate pieces when he was clammed, who proudly called his daughters “Ma Wench”, who chucked his rubbish in miskins and who’d known what it was to collar every day for little reward. And he left us his stories. Through that story of the Tipton Slasher, me and Our Kid were being bonded – without us noticing it – with our people who’d gone before.We were coming to recognise that we were not on our own, that we part of those whom we had never known but who had helped to make us.And we were becoming alert to the importance of that link with the past that means we owe a duty not only to those yet to come but to those who have gone.I know this. I am proud to have the blood of a proper Black Country mon, BILL PERRY THE TIPTON SLASHER. Ends article by professor Carl Chinn A great Tipton Slasher link giving details of how his statue came to be built in Tipton, costs and construction http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/BM/WMsaTIxx001.htm
More to follow on the TIPTON SLASHER who although he was born in Tipton and died in Wolverhampton, his burial was organised and paid for at Kates Hill and his grave stone is in St John's Church graveyard. Link to Tipton Slasher life story to follow soon
ANY TIPTON SLASHER STORIES FOR US? e-mail now savestjohnschurch@zoomshare.com INTERESTED IN TAKING PART IN TIPTON SLASHER FIGHT RE-ENACTMENTS? e-mail now savestjohnschurch@zoomshare.com
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