Francis Sydney "Frank" Dove was a British boxer who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.
Background
Frank Dove was born of mixed race in London. His English mother Augusta, née Winchester (3 March 1877-1831 January 1947), was from Sussex, his father Francis (Frans) Dove (c 1869-1822 August 1949) was from Sierra Leone, where he was a highly respected barrister.
Career
In 1920 he was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the heavyweight class after losing his fight to the upcoming silver medallist Søren Petersen. Frank"s younger sister was singer and actress Evelyn Dove. In 1910 he was sent to Cranleigh School, where he was one of the school"s first black pupils.
A successful sportsman there, he was in the 1st XI for football and cricket and was Honorary
Secretary of both sports. He left in July 1915 and went on to Merton College, Oxford, where he was reading law in November 1916 when, aged 19, he was called up for service and enlisted in the British army, giving his home address as Brighton.
In June 1918, aged 20, he joined the Royal Air Force. After being demobbed in 1920, he returned to Oxford. While there he boxed for the university and also for Great Britain at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.
He continued to box while practising as a barrister and was still winning American Bar Association divisional cruiser-weight championships in 1945, by which time he was 48.
He died on 10 February 1957 after being involved in a traffic accident in Wolverhampton. His story featured in Black Poppies: Britain"s Black Community and the Great War, which was published in 2014.
Membership
The school magazine said he was "a versatile member of the community both academically and athletically".