Boxer, Bouncer and Now a Doctor

It all started in a small industrial town in the north of England. Walking into a boxing gym was the start of an amazing metamorphosis for the 14-year-old. At age 20, he had developed into a 16-stone boxer, powerlifter and ferocious street fighter, with a knock-out punch in both hands. This is the story of a young man who, lacking education, immigrated to Australia at just 18 years of age only to experience the twilight world of sleaze and violence in Perth’s underbelly, confronting and often overcoming the many challenges he encountered. Returning to England at 21, he mastered his craft as a bouncer and street fighter, attended two universities, obtained three degrees and was awarded a doctorate at the age of 39.

Doctor Jeff Slater was born in 1956 in Burnley, Lancashire, and attended two village schools before being sent to a very violent all-male secondary modern school several miles away for failing his eleven-plus.

At the age of fourteen, he joined a boxing gym to learn to protect himself from the many physical attacks he was subjected to, both at school and on the street. Leaving Burnley in 1974, aged just eighteen, he immigrated to Perth in Western Australia.

He returned to England in 1977 as a bouncer and streetfighter. He was awarded a doctorate aged thirty-nine.