page_title: Harry Broome
section_title: Defences of English championship, 1853
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Broome / Boxing career / Defences of English championship, 1853
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraving of Tom Paddock, champion English pugilist, from a 19th century edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
context_page_description: Henry Alfred Broome was a boxer from the bare-knuckle fighting era who became heavyweight champion of England in September, 1851 when he defeated fellow Englishman William Perry in Mildenhall, England. He lost the title in May, 1856 to Tom Paddock in Suffolk.
context_section_description: Broome defended the heavyweight championship of England only once successfully against Henry Orme on a warm 18 April 1853, winning in a thirty-one round fight in Brandon, Suffolk, that lasted 2 hours, and eighteen minutes.  The substantial purse was £500 with £250 per side, and the audience numbered in the thousands.  Broome   was roughly two inches taller than his adversary, but described as fleshy and not as fit in appearance, with the skin "loose on his arms".  He may have lost some conditioning during his work as a pub keeper between fights.  He likely fought as a light heavyweight at best, as his competition weight was not known to exceed 175.  Regardless of his condition, the bout was described as one of his best, and he fought convincingly.
  In August 1853, Broome wrote to Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle announcing his retirement from boxing and that he was pulling out of an agreed re-match with William Perry.
  Broome had two fights scheduled with Tom Paddock in February and March of 1855, but Paddock failed to show for either bout.
caption: Tom Paddock
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