page_title: Pat O'Keeffe
section_title: Military service during World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Pat O'Keeffe / Military service during World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: Pat O'Keeffe, British Middleweight Champion, puts on boxing exhibition for 1st Surrey Rifles
context_page_description: Pat O'Keeffe, was a professional English boxer who became the British champion in both the welterweight and middleweight weight classes. His professional career spanned the years between 1902 and 1918. In 1914 he made an unsuccessful bid for the European heavyweight belt, losing to Georges Carpentier. Between 1907 and 1910 he left Britain and continued his boxing career in the United States, and then Australia. On the outbreak of World War I he joined the British Army to work as a Physical Training Instructor and Recruiting Sergeant for the 1st Surrey Rifles. He won the Lonsdale Belt outright when he defeated Bandsman Blake at the National Sporting Club on 28 January 1918, becoming British Middleweight Champion.
  O'Keeffe died on 16 August 1960 at the Mount Vernon Hospital in Middlesex, aged 77.
context_section_description: .
  At the start of 1915, O'Keeffe joined the 1st Surrey Rifles. He was a Physical Training Instructor and Recruiting Sergeant. 
  This is an excerpt from an Article about O'Keeffe's recruiting skill:
  ...He was recently crossing London Bridge in company with his Sergeant-Major when from the other direction came a husky, healthy youth pushing milk cart. Said the Sergeant-Major to the Corporal There's a likely-looking recruit for you, Pat; try him." O'Keeffe approached his victim, prodded him in the chest with his little stick, and said: "Say, don't you want to serve your King?" Yus," answered the youth. " How many quarts will he want? ** The Bulletin does not complete the story, but prefer to believe that Pat gained another recruit that day, for the soft answer is no good against an Irishman...
  — He wanted to serve, Star Green 'un Via British Newspaper Archive 17 July 1915
  He found Army life at the Regiment's home at Camberwell suited his boxing training well. With good, plain food, strict routine and drill, plenty of sparring partners, and ample space to train, he thrived in a friendly atmosphere where he was very popular with the men.
  O'Keeffe and other boxer-turned-soldiers planned activities to help boost the morale of injured troops. One such time was an organised boat trip down the Thames.
caption: O'Keeffe puts on a punch ball exhibition for the 1st Surrey Rifles during World War I
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