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C kapi e r Eig f As the dramatic events of 1916 unfolded, Darcy began to regret hisdecision,to rebuff Kearns and stay in Australia. He was subjected to mounting pressure to enlist and his instinct was to follow the example of his good mate Eric Newton and other friends who had volunteered for active service. But his top priorities remained steady. His earning power depended on a steady supply of top quality opponents, a supply which almost dried up during 1916. As for the world title, neither the titular champion (McCoy) nor the generally recognised master (Gibbons) could be lured to Australia. Clearly, the answer to both problems lay in the United States. A handful of lucrative fights with well-selected opponents, including McCoy and Gibbons, would yield the money that his family required, as well as the undisputed mid- dleweight championship. Perhaps he could even claim the heavyweight title if the giant Willard could be per- suaded to meet him. During the year H.D. McIntosh offered Darcy a con- tract for a number of fights and a vaudeville tour in the US. Dave Smith describes the offer tersely, not giving a date. Hawkins places the McIntosh proposal `just after the George Chip fight' which was on 30 September. In reality the approach must have been earlier in the year because by this time Darcy had made up his mind to go 203 to America and was desperately trying to get a passport. scrubbed the contract as soon as I read it. McIntosh Unluckily the one detailed account of this episode comes was as mad as a hornet. Very few people bucked from Mick Hawkins, whose stories are inconsistent and H.D. and he was sore. He threatened to stop Les unreliable. In his memoirs Dave Smith makes a brief ref- there and then. Said he'd move heaven and earth erence; the bare facts seem to accord with Mick's. to stop Les getting fights if he went to America This is Mick's story, trimmed to the bone: under his own steam. Mick Hawkins At this stage of his career H.D. McIntosh was blow- ing in Darcy's ear about going to America. H.D. was This is an unlikely story on several counts. Mick running the Tivoli shows and the Sunday Times in Hawkins had no authority to scrub the contract, and Sydney. He had been working on a scheme to spon- McIntosh had no reason to make wild threats at that sor Les in America and earn a few shekels for himself stage. It is much more likely that he would come back at the same time. Just after the [Chip] fight, H.D. pro- later with another offer, especially if he were confident duced a contract for Les to go to America. It provided that Darcy would be able to leave the country only if a guarantee of £6000 for a six months vaudeville tour strings were pulled by himself, `Huge Deal' McIntosh. and three fights. I took one gander at the contract. Five weeks after the bout with Hardwick, Darcy was It was chicken feed in my book. I wanted £6000 for matched with his old friend, Les O'Donnell. The older one title fight and would have got it. Les tried valiantly to come to grips with Darcy but Mick Hawkins could not last beyond seven rounds. Darcy then had two weeks to prepare for the return bout with K.O. This is Mick being interviewed. by Merv Williams for Brown on 8 April. the Sporting Globe in 1954. Mick being in his late sixties, he speaks as though he was Darcy's manager, which he During March, Australian troops began to move to the never was. Tommy Hanley, who gave a cutting of this Western Front. They took their position in the line near interview to D'Arcy Niland, commented: Armentieres in Northern France. `Madamoiselle from Armenteers, parley voo' entered the Anzac folklore. Mick's the last person on earth anyone "would take to a business conference. There must have been This was an upsetting time for Les. I'd never seen him someone else there, maybe Freddie [Gilmore]. Knew so depressed. Mrs Darcy was seriously ill again. He Mick well. He's up in heaven now. He was one of the said, `Pearl is only fifteen; she can't look after Mum whitest men who ever lived. and the baby too.' And away he went, breaking train- Tommy Hanley ing, the first time he ever did. Winnie O'Sullivan Les had beaten every middleweight in the world barring McCoy who held the title [not true]. I Darcy had been psychologically `down' for the first 204 205 Brown fight, after the build-up for the McGoorty Australian inexperience produced a series of disasters at contest and the exhilaration of victory. For the second .Fromelles, Pozieres and Mouquet Farm. A daylight attack Brown match he was `down' physically and mentally. after prolonged bombardment virtually amounted to a He had lost weight and his stamina was not as robust suicide mission; Australian forces advanced, bogged as usual. The fight again lasted the full twenty rounds down, were surrounded and fought their way back. More with no knockdowns on either side. Many regarded it than 5000 casualties resulted in a single night at Fromelles as a training canter for Darcy but in his weaker and and the 5th Division was out of action for several months. worried condition he made heavy weather of it. Then it was the turn of three other divisions. The next two bouts, in May and June, were against Piecemeal advances on narrow fronts played into the second-raters.- The Rumanian Costica was completely hands of the German defenders. Artillery barrages overawed and outclassed. He managed to grapple for churned the soil from No Man's Land to the aid stations three rounds, until Darcy landed some telling blows, and the reinforcements in the rear. Hundreds perished whereupon a police inspector stopped the fight. without firing a shot, on the way to their positions or waiting in the trenches for the whistle to signal the I go by boat now, Crouse he soon follow. Darcy `Hop Over'. On the attack, machine guns cut swathes knock him out quick, you see. through the advancing lines, men were trapped in wire, Costica drowned in shell holes, buried by the explosion of heavy shells or simply blasted out of existence. Waves True to this prediction, Darcy knocked out Crouse of troops were thrown forward through mud, forests early in the second round. reduced to matchwood, townships turned into smoking Desperate for quality opposition, Snowy reverted to rubble and carpets of dead and wounded to make gains Dave Smith. Finding, as usual, that his business enter- of a hundred or two hundred metres. Then the line on prises did not prosper Gentleman Dave returned to the the map could move forward and the War Cabinet and ring. They fought in Sydney in late June; the return the press could give out the good news. Repatriation match was to be in Brisbane in August. Smith showed hospitals in Australia from then to the present day all his skills and battled gamely^_but could not hold his became repositories for men reduced to physical or brilliant protege beyond twelve rounds. mental husks by that descent into hell on earth. At this stage of his career Les had few problems in the ring. However, events in the wider world began Even before these losses became known in Australia, to create problems far beyond his control. Between his the pressure for conscription had intensified. At the two fights with Dave Smith, the Allies launched the same time the patriotic reaction to the anti-conscrip- disastrous campaign on the Somme, partly designed to tionists became more heavy handed, both through take pressure off the hard-pressed French at Verdun. official censorship and direct action at public meetings. The Anzacs were thrown into a cauldron of fire. Various combinations of English incompetence and 206 207 ANGRY CROWD From the war cemetery 70,000 PEOPLE IN THE DOMAIN Fog quiet Another attempt in the Sydney Domain yesterday Comes no hint afternoon to hold a meeting in favour of anti- that men died conscription proved futile. With curses and mud A crowd of 70,000 people, led by a contingent in their mouths .... of men in khaki, showed clearly that they were not M.E. Bertram going to tolerate any such utterances as those usually given birth by the representatives of the Both the conscriptionists and some anti-conscription- [anti-conscription] league. ists had hopes that the Prime Minister would support The police fought to keep the thousands back, their cause upon his return. Everything depended on but they were powerless. In a moment the soldiers Hughes and his message from the War Cabinet. He had had seized the table and trestles and overturned the made a huge splash in Britain, being lionised up and speakers. down the country as he gave rousing speeches on the It was a noisy, swaying crowd, angry in the theme `Wake Up and Win the War'. He also performed extreme, and for a moment or two matters looked less spectacular but significant work to build up a fleet very ugly. of Australian ships to carry primary produce for the war Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 1916 effort. Scandalised by the duchessing of the leader of the working classes, the radical newspaper, the Worker, Patriotic fervor stirred on 5 August for the anniver- warned Hughes not to mistake the popping of cham- sary of the declaration of war.

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