According to his record on the BoxRec website, Bob Whitelaw fought out of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia during a career which spanned from 1903 to 1919, apparently as a welterweight exclusively. He was an Australian welterweight champion at least twice and probably was best-known for fighting a young up-and-coming fighter, Les Darcy, in two bouts. Whitelaw won the first bout by decision and handed Darcy his first known defeat after twenty rounds of boxing. In the second bout, Darcy knocked Whitelaw out in the fifth round. According to information that I found on records in the Family Tree section of Ancestry.com, one Robert Pillans Whitelaw was born on June 16, 1879 in Haywood Colliery Village, Lanarkshire, Scotland and died on September 25, 1964 in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Whitelaw apparently was living in Australia by the time he was five years old. He married Lilian May Nelson (1890-1994) during 1908 and was the father of nine children. On at least one of his pages in the Family Tree section of Ancestry.com, one can access a number of photographs of Whitelaw, showing him both as a boxer and an older man. The photographs of him as an older man plainly show the wear-and-tear on his face, undoubtedly the result of his career as boxer. - Chuck Johnston
