David Boy Smith grave (27th November 1962 to 18th May 2002)

I’d not heard of Golborne in Lancashire but one Sunday I ensured I passed through it to find the grave of a colourful wrestler who died way too young. Rather plainly he was called David Smith but was a splash of colour and known in the ring as Davey Boy Smith or The British Bulldog. He lies in a small churchyard behind a modern Catholic church (no tall spire to guide me in.)

I won’t bore you with his various fights and achievements but he started wrestling from age 13 and was on television by 15. He shot to fame wrestling as the British Bulldog and as part of The British Bulldogs tag team with his cousin "The Dynamite Kid" (also from Golborne - and who also died young - not located his grave yet.) Wrestling took The Bulldog around the world and provided a good living and much fame. In the eighties he was on the wrestling’s brightly colour beacons.

Aged 36 he suffered a run of bad luck. He injured his back on a trapdoor in the ring and was fired by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) a number of months later. Shortly after there was a near-fatal motorcycling accident, a bitter divorce from his first wife Diane, a spinal infection and battle against his addiction to prescription painkillers.

After being fired from the WWF he was hoping to start a wrestling school. He was trying to make a comeback as a wrestling team with his teenage son Harry. Sadly while on holiday in Canada he had a sudden heart attack and died in the arms of his girlfriend. A forensic investigation found his blood bore low levels of steroids and painkillers but not enough to kill him. Officially he died from natural causes associated with an enlarged heart (probably from tears of pumping protein into his body.) He left two children by his first wife.

The churchyard was small so this headstone was found quickly. A man nearby doing maintenance looked up. I said we were there to see The Bulldog but he didn't reply. When he pushed a wheelbarrow down the path I took a few photos. This looked a well-attended grave so I guess his family live nearby. He left a big hole in the wrestling world and a bigger one in his family's lives. Poor lad. I did a salute and left.