Features
From the Archives
If This Medal Could Talk
BY ANDREW VOWLES
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| It's only about the size of a quarter, but this boxing medal has stood the test of time, surfacing on eBay more than 90 years after it was awarded to an Ontario Agricultural College student. Photo by Rebecca Kendall |
He won the OAC boxing medallion in 1915, the same year he cut short his studies to sign up for a bigger fight. The medallion is silver-coloured, about the size of a quarter, with a loop for a chain that's now missing. The metal is smooth, as if it might have hung for years around his neck, perhaps as a good-luck charm tucked in his soldier's uniform. Embossed on one side are the OAC crest and the words: Ontario Agricultural College. On the reverse is an inscription: “1st welterweight boxing. 1915. G. Smedley.”
Prof. Gary Umphrey, Mathematics and Statistics, found the medal on eBay and decided to spend the few dollars needed to rescue it back from its British owner. “I just felt it should be back here at Guelph rather than out there in limbo,” says Umphrey, who watches eBay for items connected to OAC, the University and his own research and personal interests.
Intrigued by his find, which he recently donated to the U of G Library archives, he sought out more information about the medallion's original recipient, both in the Guelph archives and through Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.
George Smedley arrived at Guelph in 1914, perhaps fresh from the family farm as many of his OAC '18 classmates had. Maybe it had been years of outdoor work that had toned his welterweight body. In his first year, he racked up some success in the ring. There was that medallion, which physically resembles other medals given by the college back then as academic awards for husbandry, say, or debating.
Smedley might even have won the award in a match described in the April 1915 issue of the OAC Review, dug up by Umphrey on a visit to the library archives: “In the finals of the welterweight, Smedley '18 won from McCulloch '16. McCulloch showed better form and better style, but Smedley had it on him in condition and also had a defence that was hard to break. They had to go an extra round to satisfy the judges, but before it was over, McCulloch was out of wind and had to quit.”
Those officials would have been faculty members. A separate Review article about boxing reads: “Prof. Squirrel and Mr. Springer officiated as judges, while Prof. Unwin refereed.” Squirrel was a professor of field husbandry; Unwin was a lecturer in French and English as well as a coach. Both may even have been working at Smedley's winning bout.
Shortly before that match, Smedley had signed up for the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was hardly the only one. An OAC Review editorial written in early 1916 said: “The outlook for athletics during the ensuing year is somewhat hazy. The war has reduced our student body quite appreciably, and those boys who have gone to the front are playing a bigger game.”
Smedley landed in D Company of the 38th Battalion, according to the unit's draft list and his enlistment papers. The latter, completed in Guelph March 16, 1915, provide a few more details. He'd been born in England in the spring of 1890. While an OAC student, he'd signed up for militia training on campus.
By the time he enlisted, Smedley was just shy of his 25th birthday. He stood 5'5", had brown eyes and light brown hair, and had a birthmark on his left temple.
The 38th Battalion ended up in Europe and saw action in France and Belgium, including fighting at Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and the Somme offensive.
Smedley's name was included in the 1916 OAC Libranni yearbook in a list called “Men of Class '18 Who Answered the Empire's Call to Arms Before Entering the Second Year.” He was listed again in the 1917 yearbook among the 1918 honour roll of students who had enlisted for service overseas.
His name doesn't appear again — not among college casualties in the 1918 yearbook, not on the commemorative plaque in War Memorial Hall and not in a casualty list maintained by Veterans Affairs. Maybe he returned to farming without completing his degree. Perhaps he never returned to Canada at all.
Boxing continued on campus at least into the 1950s, twinned with wrestling under the banner of the OAC interfaculty assault-at-arms team.
Do you have a “From the Archives” story to share? If you've recently found a treasure while visiting or using the U of G Library archives, let us know. Maybe there's a story in there. Contact Andrew Vowles at Ext. 53864 or a.vowles@exec.uoguelph.ca.