Background
Dick was the son of Lionel Turpin who had been born in British Guyana and his wife, Beatrice Elizabeth Whitehouse.
Dick was the son of Lionel Turpin who had been born in British Guyana and his wife, Beatrice Elizabeth Whitehouse.
He had two brothers Jack, who was a featherweight and Randolph, a middleweight. Turpin fought his first professional bout in March 1939 against Jimmy Griffiths, in Coventry. He lost on points over ten rounds.
He went on to build up a domestic record of 86 fights with 68 wins, 12 losses, 5 draws and one no-contest, before his first title fight.
This was for the Commonwealth middleweight title, in May 1948, and was against Richard Bos Murphy of New Zealand. In his next bout, on 28 June 1948, Turpin fought Vince Hawkins for his British middleweight title.
He now held both the British and Commonwealth middleweight titles. The fight was at Harringay Arena, and Turpin was knocked out in the first round, and so only retained his British title.
This last fight was in July 1950.
In June 1949, he defended his British and Commonwealth titles against Albert Finch, winning on points after fifteen rounds. In September 1949, he defended his Commonwealth title against Australian, Dave Sands.