Alf Bear

Alfred Henry William Bear was born in Gillingham, Kent, on 5th January 1887 but by the age of six was living with his uncle, Bill Sanger (of the Sanger Circus fame), who managed the roller rink at the Hall-by-the-Sea (later developed as Dreamland) in Margate. This meant that young Bear could strap on a pair of skates and take to the rink, which he did, frequently.

Even at this young age he had dreams of becoming a speed skater and learned his craft on the rink. The rink was an old railway building, very narrow and often referred to as “the pencil box” and this helped Bear hone his technical skills. He would often take on all comers in races and before long he became known as Margate’s ‘local champion’. Of course, in reality, no such title existed but Bear was happy to accept the accolade.

At the turn of the 20th century Bear took an interest in roller dancing. In fact, he was so adept at skating in general that he was also winning local dance competitions as well as speed. His dance partner at the time was Ethel Jubb and in later years the couple would be married.

Returning to his speed skating exploits Bear was regularly pitched against other skaters from other rinks who were shipped in to have a crack at the ‘local champion’. Invariably, the diminutive Bear (as an adult he was a little under 5 feet 7 inches) would romp home the winner. He continued to race all comers on his home rink but in early 1907 a chance glance at a newspaper would set his life on an entirely different path. The newspaper advertised that there were to be both amateur and professional roller speed skating championships at the Crystal Palace, London under the auspices of the National Skating Association (NSA). Bear had never heard of the NSA but the advert piqued his interest.

The entrance fee was a half crown for the Professional Championship and a full five shillings for the Amateur Championship. Bear opted for the cheaper of the two and entered the professional event. Saturday 2nd March 1907 was a cold and cheerless day and Bear turned up at the Crystal Palace during the afternoon session to be greeted by a track like no other he had seen. The rink was surfaced in asphalt and was a huge nine laps to the mile, a far cry from the tiny outdoor rink he had mastered back in Margate. During a try-out session he found that the surface was also quite ‘wavy’ and made his legs tremble the faster he skated. It was certainly a strange feeling and he wondered how he would cope in the race although he did find it extremely fast compared to his home track.

As the evening approached a large crowd had gathered and the other skaters started to arrive. London had long been the centre of roller speed skating excellence, most notably with those skaters from Wandsworth or the Lava club in Denmark Hill. Formal racing under the guidance of the NSA was still in its infancy whereas the Lava rink had been around since the 1870’s, but the first NSA race did not take place until December 1893. Shortly after, interest had quickly waned but came back with renewed vigour and a resurrection of championship events in 1906. Amongst the athletes present were amateur legends Eddie Casey and Charles Wilson (the first amateur British Champion and current amateur title holder), whilst the professionals included F. P. Powell, and world record holders Hal Berte and Bill Curtis. Bear was the ‘unknown kid’ from the seaside and little attention was paid to him.

As the skaters prepared themselves for their races Bear noticed that their skates were bolted to their boots, whereas he was using “Raymond” skates with clamps and a strap around the heel. This did nothing to quell his nerves and he suddenly felt very ‘green’.

The race itself was over one and a half miles and comprised of just six skaters with three skaters competing in each heat. For the first time the championships would be decided by a race and not a time test (time trial) as it was in previous years. The final would consist of the heat winners and fastest second. Bear was drawn in the first heat against the well-established amateur and recently turned professional, F. P. Powell and the 1890 (unofficial) 3 Mile Champion of England, Arthur Buckhurst, who was also a big name on the professional circuit. Powell would win the heat just two tenths of a second and two yards ahead of Bear. Buckhurst, his best years now behind him, came home a distant third.

The second heat was arguably of a higher calibre with world record holders Hal Berte (real name Albert Perkins) and Bill Curtis Senior skating alongside C. Wells. Berte just pipped Curtis on the line, however, Curtis’s second placed time was some 13 seconds slower than that of Bear and it was the Margate lad who would compete in the final.

Bear had pretty much kept himself to himself throughout the day but having eavesdropped on a few conversations had worked out who the favourite was to win the title, and it wasn’t him. Hearing this Bear decided that his best tactic was to keep close to the skater considered to be the favourite. As the final unfolded all three skaters were pretty evenly matched and closely grouped, however, at two laps to go Bear accelerated and quickly pulled away from the other two. They chased him down and were catching the youngster but at the finish it was Bear who crossed the line in first place in a time of 5 minutes and 57 seconds, just one tenth of a second ahead of a fast finishing Powell. Many onlookers were surprised, but none more so than Bear himself who was now not only the new Professional Champion but received £3 in prize money for his efforts.

The following year Bear retained his title. Only Powell put himself forward as a challenger but falling twice within the race put paid to any idea of a close race between the two professionals.

Roller skating was starting to enjoy another boom period and rinks were starting to spring up all over the country. Two of the biggest names in skating, Crawford and Wilkins, opened swathes of what became known as “American” rinks. One of these was the Empress Hall rink at Earl’s Court and Bear, with his newfound stardom, became the youngest instructor there. The floor was of the finest Canadian rock maple and measured at ten laps to the mile. It was ideal for Bear to further develop his speed skills.

In 1909 Crawford and Wilkins widely advertised a series of races that would culminate in a final event classed as the (unofficial) Professional World Championship. The final was to be run at the Olympia rink in Kensington and a prize pot of some £400 to be shared out amongst the finalists. Between 1st and 26th February, a large number of qualifying heats were run in the “American” rinks up and down the length and breadth of the country – Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Bradford to name a few. Well known American professional speed skaters such as brothers John and Harley Davidson together with Allie Moore also joined the challenge as did 150 other skaters that included Bear.

Bear switched his training to Olympia, a massive six and three quarter laps to the mile (about 240 metres). Also training there was the Americans and Bear decided he would try and adopt the same style and use the same equipment, noting that they seemed to cover the ground more quickly. Almost immediately Bear started skating with his hands behind his back, sitting as low as possible and getting his upper body almost parallel to the track. It was a style more akin to ice skating but Bear found it very effective. He also dress liked the Americans – a high neck sweater, gloves, cap and his own colour scheme. And finally, he changed to their type of skate becoming the first British professional to do so.

Bear decided that he would compete in the early rounds at the Manningham Lane rink in Bradford to try and secure a place at the Olympia finals. He duly qualified for the semi-finals which were also held at Olympia on the same evening as the final. The winner of each of the four semi-finals plus the fastest second qualified for the final. In his semi-final Bear came up against the American Allie Moore and fellow British professional Bill Curtis Senior. By now Bear and Curtis had been skating the professional circuit for some time and had become firm friends. Moore was a clear favourite to win the final and recognising that beating him in a head-to-head was unlikely Bear and Curtis devised a plan to thwart the American’s progress. Bear believed that the favoured Moore would most likely be watching him (Bear) and so he suggested to Curtis that when the gun went, he would remain on the line and Curtis should speed off and hopefully get such an advantage that he would hopefully win and qualify for the final. The pair would then equally share the spoils of any prize money due. They put the plan into action and Curtis did indeed get a significant lead, however, Moore quickly became wise to what was going on and swiftly chased after Curtis. The American was simply too strong and too fast for the British skaters and duly beat them both to gain a place in the final where he would eventually finish second. Although former amateur champion and recently turned professional Charles Wilson would finish third, it was still quite evident that the British skaters still had much to learn from their American counterparts.

After the euphoria of Olympia normal service resumed in terms of professional challenges. On 20th March at Earl’s Court Bear, Wilson, Curtis Senior and Bill Curtis Junior took part in a mile race watched by some 3000 spectators. Throughout his amateur career Charles Wilson had boasted that he had never been beaten by a subject of the realm, but just a month after the Olympia final that was all about to change, albeit on a technicality. Coming out of the last bend it was neck and neck between Bear and Wilson. Wilson crossed the line ahead of Bear but whilst exiting the bend had placed a hand on his opponent and was disqualified for a foul. Bear was awarded the victory, whilst Wilson continued to maintain he had never been beaten by a subject of the realm … fairly!

A week later Wilson would exact his revenge on Bear. It was the Professional One and Half Mile Championship at Crystal Palace which Bear had won on the two previous occasions. Wilson, still the reigning amateur champion now turned professional just for the Olympia event back in February, came home ahead of Bear to dethrone the Margate skater of his crown. Over the next few years, the rivalry between Bear and Wilson would continue to escalate. The blue touch paper was now lit but it would be another twelve months before we saw any real fireworks.

Throughout 1909 Bear continued to race professionally and was making some decent money. In one event in Norwich a race was held open to ‘all Englishmen’. Bear naturally qualified for the final, amongst whom was a young local lad by the name of Arthur Egglington. As Bear had been viewed at Margate in his early teens, so was Egglington amongst the Norwich locals. Egglington had displayed both skill and speed in the heats and was well up in the final when he had the misfortune to fall. Bear came home the winner but Egglington had certainly grabbed his attention. Of course, Egglington would go on to become noth an amatuer and profssional British champion in his own right as well as set numerous amateur and professional records both in the UK and in America. He would also coach and manage the very first British national teams, but all that was still to come.

During the late 1890’s and early 1900’s a prominent Leicester skater by the name of Tertius Picton Blakesley was widely known amongst skating professionals. He had regularly claimed to be the ‘Champion of England’, albeit at a time before the NSA had really taken control of roller speed skating as a sport. Blakesley was still quite a character and a decent speed skater. Capitalising on Blakesley’s claim Charles Barnett, manager of the Empress Rink (later Granby Halls) in Leicester suggested a race be held between Blakesley and Bear to conclude once and for all who was indeed the ‘true’ champion. Of course, Bear was allied to the Empress Rink through his association with the Empress Hall at Earl’s Court whilst Blakesley was associated with the rival Leicester rink, The Boulevard, under the management of Ernest Holdsworth. Articles were signed on 12th October 1909 that suggested three races be run, two over one mile and a third over two miles, the winner (or ‘champion’) being declared from the best of the three events.

The first race over a mile was held on the night of 26th October at the Empress Rink and it was Blakesley who romped home the winner by some 35 yards. In the second mile event, the following evening at the Boulevard Rink, Blakesley would stumble and fall and allow Bear an easy victory to make honours even. The third and final event, the two mile race, took place back at the Empress Rink on the night of 28th October. Over the longer distance Bear was once again victorious, but despite doing well financially from the challenge the large partisan crowd were not so generous having seen their local hero beaten and Bear made a swift exit back to London.

By 1910 roller speed skating was really enjoying a huge boom in popularity, bigger even than that seen in the late 1870’s and early 1880’s. Almost every town and city now had at least one roller rink. Amateur competitions were well attended and competed for but professional competitions were the ones that really captured the public’s imagination initially. Whether it was because there was significant prize money at stake or whether it was because the professional scene really had an international following is not clear, but what we do know is that crowds numbered in their thousands and rink owners and managers were always keen to host the worlds elite. There were thousands of skaters classed as professional (instructors, floor managers, etc.) but it was a small band of elite speed skaters that included the likes of Moore, Curtis, Wilson, the Davidson brothers, Berte and of course Bear, that captured the public imagination. Also crossing the Atlantic was another American champion, Rodney Peters. There were races on the continent, most notably Paris with it’s 24 hours race in Paris, but Great Britain was where all the real action was happening. Bear continued to ply his trade around the country, taking on challengers from all quarters and invariably winning. If you were a successful roller speed skater competing in Britain at that time you could earn some serious money.

In March 1910 a challenge was issued for Bear to meet Wilson in a series of three one mile races to be run at Leicester for a purse of £25. Both accepted and a date was set for April. Shortly afterwards the NSA communicated that the British Professional One Mile Championship was now scheduled to be run at the new Maida Vale rink on 25th April. The dates clashed with the Bear v Wilson challenge and as both were keen to compete in championship event, the head to head challenge was postponed.

Excitingly, the number of entries were significantly higher for the 1910 race than had been seen previously. Bear was twice winner (1907 and 1908) but Wilson was the current title holder (1909). The two giants were clear favourites, but opinions were split on which one would walk away as the 1910 Champion. The heats went without incident with Bear and Wilson progressed to the final with relative ease. In the final, however, Wilson caught the skate of Bear and fell heavily. Bear crossed the line and was initially declared the winner, but a few minutes after the final was run Wilson complained that he felt he had been purposely tripped. The result was that Bear was disqualified and the race re-run without him. Bear was incensed and to rub salt into his wounds, Wilson won the re-run at a canter and thus retained his title. Immediately after the event and hopeful of cashing in on the Bear / Wilson rivalry the Maida Vale rink offered a purse for Bear and Wilson to meet in series of head to head races on their rink. Wilson accepted whilst a still smarting Bear ignored the suggestion.

Further fuel was added to the fire when public letters of disapproval about the result were sent to newspapers. Some felt that it was impossible for Bear to have tripped Wilson as Wilson was behind, whilst others believed that the race should not have been re-run and Curtis (who crossed the line second in the initial race) should have been awarded the victory. In short, it was a fiasco. Wilson replied with the following response published in Sporting Life on 3rd May:

The fallout resulted in Bear taking a sabbatical from racing. The head-to-head meeting between himself and Wilson never materialised and in fact, despite their fierce rivalry, the two would never meet competitively again.

Bear continued to support rinks as a skating instructor, whether it be at the Empress Hall, Aldwych or even the big open air rink in Great Yarmouth. Shortly after marrying his long time sweetheart the couple were offered positions as skating teachers in the Sporting Palace in St. Petersburg, the then capital of Russia. They accepted but on arrival found that the rink wasn’t quite ready for opening. When it eventually did, Bear would go on to say that it was the finest rink he had ever graced and that nothing in Britain could compare to its opulence. The floor was of the best maple and the rink size was nine laps to the mile (around 180 metres per lap) with leather covered barriers, parquet flooring on the outside of the rink and polished tables that were waited on with each waiter looking after just three tables. The meals were cooked by a top rate chef from a high-class restaurant and a balcony ran all the way around the rink with light coming in through a high glass ceiling. Very little powder was ever used and the floor was continually swept. It was sheer luxury compared to some of the shadowy dusty rinks back home.

Even the patronage was of a high calibre. It was not unusual to see the British Ambassador or relatives of the Czar in attendance. All the professionals that worked at the rink were either British or American and treated by the Russians as very important people. One of them was John Davidson, one of the American finalists in the great professional race at Olympia back in 1909. He gave exhibitions of skating on stilts and jumping through hoops of fire. It was here that Bear got his first Floor Manager role. The couple stayed for six months and after a hugely successful time of it decided to move back to England.

It was May 1911 when Bear set foot back on British soil once more. A month earlier and the 1911 British Professional Mile Championship had been held at Brixton, and as with 1910 controversy would mar the result. This time Bill Curtis Junior crossed the line first only to find himself disqualified and Wilson, who finished second behind him, was once again promoted to the top step. Thankfully, for Bear, he had little knowledge, or interest if truth be told, of what was occurring back home.

On his return Bear had made a decision to give up skating professionally altogether but in March 1912 the Brixton rink came calling, offering him a position as Floor Manager. He duly accepted and decided that he would have another crack at professional speed skating having put the past incidents well and truly behind him. After all, he was still only 24 years old and was more than capable of holding his own in a race.

Brixton was a stark contrast to St. Petersburg. The rink was a corrugated iron clad building with a low ceiling and copious amounts of dust. The organ that was supposed to play the music invariably broke down, unlike the sixty piece orchestra that played at the rink back in Russia! Business was slow and the staff consisted of just Alf, his wife Ethel and an instructor who gave free lessons. Despite this, Bear found that those who did frequent the rink were very good skaters. There was a speed club and a hockey club and matches would be played on Saturday afternoons with the rink large enough to be divided in two by the use of a barrier.

The boom period, however, was almost over and the NSA now focused primarily on amateur events. There was a racing league set up and amateur racing membership was still increasing. By contrast, the professional outlook was bleak and the public had shifted their gaze to the bigger spectacle of mass participation. Although there were still one or two professional competitions, by and large these were exhibition events. In 1912 and 1913 the British Professional Championships were not held.

As 1914 approached Bear was getting more and more interested in roller figure and dance. In fact, he had passed a number of tests and was so proficient that he became an roller dance instructor. Then, unexpectedly, the NSA announced that there was to be once again a British Professional Mile Championship, this time at the Holland Park Rink. Bear decided to give it a go.

At 10pm on 16th April 1914, Bear hotly contested the final with Tertius Percy Blakesley of Leicester. Blakesley was, of course, the son of Bear’s old adversary Tertius Picton Blakesley whom he had beaten a few years earlier. During the race the judges again deemed there to be some fouling and the skaters were asked to recontest the race. A frustrated Bear and Blakesley both refused and the race was declared void. Charles Wilson, who was not racing that evening, was declared to still be the present champion. It was the final straw for Bear and he walked away from speed skating for good.

Bear now put all his efforts into roller figure and dance and worked on making the Brixton rink a success by holding regular carnivals. It seemed to work and soon the rink was starting to attract more and more skaters. Of course, this was to be short lived as just a few months later war was declared. Now aged 27, Bear swapped his rink uniform for a naval one and did his bit for king and country. His service was primarily with the Home Fleet in Sheerness and Chatham.

Bear was demobbed in March 1919 and returned to Brixton only to find the rink closed. He worked for short periods as an instructor at the Norbury and Walpole Hall (Ealing) rinks, then in September 1921 he was offered a job as the Floor Manager for the Holland Park Rink. However, he had already agreed to take up the same position back at Brixton which was once again opening its doors for the first time since the war.

The rink opened to much fanfare and for the first eight months almost two thousand skaters descended on the rink every Saturday. With such crowds Bear found instructing near impossible, but soon after the numbers started to thin out and he could once again teach roller figure and dance. By now he was a much sought after instructor and many of the figure and dance champions were taking instruction from Bear. He was obsessed in finding new and better ways of developing dance moves, regularly attending ice rinks and ballets to garner ideas.

It was whilst he was frequenting ice rinks in the late 1920’s that he was approached to teach ice skaters. He initially resisted but found that a lot of his roller dance skaters were switching to the ice and he was finally persuaded. In September 1930 Bear’s association with the Brixton rink and moreover, roller skating, ended for good.

Bear was a teacher on ice for several years but he never really found the same affection for blades as he had with rollers. Later, he found employment outside of skating and over time, the name Alf Bear all but disappeared from the annals of skating history.

Alfred Henry William Bear passed away on 16th January 1961, just a few days after his 74th birthday. He should not only be remembered for his superb exploits as a professional roller speed skater but also as one of the greatest teachers of the real art of skating in the great boom days. An era when professional skaters and instructors numbered in their thousands and not counted on the fingers of one hand as we have today. Bear was an outstanding exponent of all branches of skating and always retained the reputation of being entirely honest and sportsmanlike in all his dealings with skaters.

Very few pictures exist of Bear during his skating days. In fact, I know of only one. Before this article, if you Googled “Alf Bear skating” you would have been hard pushed to find any record that such a talent existed amongst our ranks. Google the same now and hopefully that ignorance has been addressed and his story can once more be told and enjoyed for generations to come.