Georges Carpentier

The son of a mine worker, Georges Carpentier was born in Lievin on January 12, 1894. Raised in a Lens coron, a small working-class house, he began his career as a boxer of French boxing. In 1907, at the age of 13, he was then junior champion of France in this discipline. Carpentier began English boxing the following year. On December 4, 1908, he was amateur world champion. An announcement published in L’Echo du Nord, the regional paper, on March 14, 1909, offered all regional boxers under 52kg to face off in either English or French boxing. He became welterweight champion of France in 1911 at age 17, and then Europe the same year. He won the White Heavyweight World Championship title in July 1914.
During the Great War, he served in the air force as an aviator sergeant and distinguished himself during the taking of Fort Douaumont in October 1916, and received the Croix de Guerre from Raymond Poincaré, President of the French Republic and the Médaille Militaire. After the Armistice of 1918, he returned to civilian life where he resumed his boxing career after a short experience playing rugby, another sport he practiced with a certain skill.
He fought in practically all weight categories and became World Light-Heavyweight Champion on October 12, 1920, in Jersery City (United-States) by knocking out Battling Levinsky. He became the first French World Champion in English boxing.
Retired from competition in 1926, he also participated in the Second World War, once again mobilised in the air force in May 1939. Demobilised the following year, he became an “ambassador of French sport abroad” in 1948.