Pat O'Keeffe, was a professional English boxer who became the British champion in both the welterweight and middleweight weight classes. His professional career spanned the years between 1902 and 1918. In 1914 he made an unsuccessful bid for the European heavyweight belt, losing to Georges Carpentier. Between 1907 and 1910 he left Britain and continued his boxing career in the United States, and then Australia. On the outbreak of World War I he joined the British Army to work as a Physical Training Instructor (PTI) and Recruiting Sergeant for the 1st Surrey Rifles. He won the Lonsdale Belt outright when he defeated Bandsman Blake at the National Sporting Club (N.S.C) on 28 January 1918, becoming British Middleweight Champion.

Georges Carpentier was a French boxer, actor and World War I pilot. A precocious pugilist, Carpentier fought in numerous categories. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908 to 1926. A French professional champion on several occasions, he became the European heavyweight champion before the First World War. A sergeant aviator during the Great War, he was wounded before returning to civilian life. He then discovered rugby union, playing as a winger.