Who was Bradley Welsh? Former Edinburgh boxer killed in West End shooting

Colourful character Bradley Welsh will be remembered for his community work, acting roles and links with Hibernian FC.

Bradley Welsh, who was shot dead in Edinburgh (Photo: Ian Rutherford)

Born in Moredun in April 1970, Mr Welsh studied at St Thomas of Aquin’s High School.

Mr Welsh said in an interview last year that he “went through the stratosphere” between the ages of 15 to 19.

He became involved in protection rackets and becoming a well-known member of the Hibernian FC Capital City Service firm, built a reputation as a casual.

At the age of 18, he found himself in jail for menacing an estate agent, receiving a four-year sentence of which he served 18 months.

Turning himself around

He left jail with four more Highers than he had gained at school. But he was to return aged 26, for a four-month sentence, after assaulting a woman in her home.

Going on to box competitively on release from prison, he was the ABA Lightweight champion in 1993 as a member of Leith Victoria amateur boxing club.

He became chairman of the Amateur Boxing Association Scotland, which runs gyms across the country, as well as founding the Holyrood Boxing Gym, on Duddingston Road, in 2006.

In 2008, he appeared on Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men, a year after appearing on Football Hooligans International.

Charity and community work

Charity and community came to dominate his life. Mr Welsh worked with deprived communities, running boxing and fitness classes for children, women and unemployed or homeless people.

In 2014, Mr Welsh managed to get his name in the Guinness Book of World Records after raising more than £44,000 through his Pads for Charity event which saw him spend 24 hours in the ring as 360 people engaged him in a nonstop round of pads.

The same year he set up Helping Hands with Jim Slaven, a volunteer organisation which operated one of Edinburgh’s biggest food banks.