[4] Born in New Yard, now Trinity Walk,[5] Nottingham on 11 October 1811,[6][7][8][9][10] Thompson claimed to be one of a set of triplets named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, after the young men in the Book of Daniel who are thrown into the fiery furnace of Babylon.

The eldest child in the family, Rebecca, born 1805, remains a mystery, because further details of her life cannot be found, and William grew up with just two surviving brothers, Thomas and John.

After leaving the Workhouse, Thompson sold oysters on the streets of Nottingham before landing a position as an iron turner, a job that enhanced his muscular build.

Although being barely 177 cm (5 ft 10 in) tall, he compensated for his lack of height with an incredible ability to punch hard and fast, and was said to be devoid of fear.

It wasn't long before Thompson was drawing crowds as large as 10,000 to his illicit fights, held secretly out of town in barns or fields.

Thompson, who was 19 kg (42 lb; 3.0 st) lighter and 11 cm (4 in) shorter, got into difficulties during the fight and started to stumble frequently.

A few months later, Thompson responded to a letter in a newspaper from Liverpudlian William Looney, challenging "... any man in the world for £200 stake and £200 a-side".

In the fiftieth round, it was Thompson's turn for some underhand tactics, lashing out some kicks on Caunt but the referee dismissed the complaint.

In the seventy-fifth round, the referee stopped the fight, because Thompson had fallen to the ground without being struck, an illegal tactic according to London Prize Ring Rules.

The coach was arrested by Thompson's mob who dragged Caunt out, but he escaped during the ensuing melee, riding bareback on a stolen horse.

The fight was held in a field at No Mans Heath in Leicestershire, near the village of Heather, in front of an unruly crowd of roughly 15,000 people.

After half an hour, the frustrated Burke became so enraged with the barrage of punches and insults coming from his younger, faster and stronger challenger, he grabbed hold of Thompson and full-on head butted him twice, thus losing on a foul and gifting the championship away.

When he got home to Nottingham, Thompson met his supporters on 23 March 1840, and in his excitement while somersaulting he hurt his kneecap and was laid up for two years.

[3] On 9 September 1845 at Lillington Level, Suffield Green, Oxford, an unruly and partly drunken crowd of 11,000 came to see the third and final fight between Thompson and Caunt who would settle the score for 200 a side.

Thompson's tactics were called into question as he crouched and bobbed his way around the ring, making it harder for Caunt to hit him.

The fight lasted a lengthy 93 rounds, with Thompson tactically and methodically breaking his man down until, exhausted after two hours ten minutes, Caunt sat down with his back turned on his "nether end" without getting hit, losing on a foul.

His outspoken character and record in the ring attracted a massive fan base, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote a verse to the fighter, titled "Bendigo's Sermon"; Speaking about his own career, Thompson said proudly: "I was engaged in 21 matched fights and never was beaten in one.

After one of his "holidays" inside, Thompson started to take an interest in the prison chaplain's sermons, especially the story of David and Goliath, declaring, "I do hope the lit'lun licks the big'un.

"[20] On 6 June 1850, immediately after his fight with Tom Paddock, he was arrested for drunkenness on Chandler Street in Nottingham and released after paying a 5 shilling fee.

[21] He eventually moved to Beeston to try to curb his drinking with his friends in Nottingham, but could not stop his habit for long, having only a few sober moments fishing by the Trent.

During one sermon, he became perturbed by hecklers at the back of the room and shouted in frustration "Good Lord, Thou knowest that since I gave up my wicked ways I have devoted my life to Thy service, and have given Thee the whole of my time.

Thompson spent the next few years touring the country preaching to crowds of thousands, becoming more popular, and eventually he gained attention of politicians.

His funeral procession was exceedingly long and was watched by thousands lining the roads, including a number of the wealthy and famed.

Thompson's tomb, which features a crouching lion, can be seen at the burial ground in Bath Street Rest Gardens, near Victoria Leisure Centre in Nottingham.

An early Australian shepherd on the Ravenswood Run[26] was also a bare-knuckle boxer with a style reminiscent of Thompson, and hence was given the same nickname, which was then applied to the area as Bendigo's Creek.

In Bestwood, a suburban part of Nottingham, there is a small nature reserve on Sunrise Hill that was a copse known locally as "Bendigo's Ring".

A character named Gonolph Bendigo, clearly meant to be analogous to William Thompson, appeared in the second series of Defoe, a comic anthologised in 2000AD.

Although Defoe is set in the seventeenth, rather than nineteenth, century, the character owes a lot to the real-life boxer, being a retired bare-knuckle fighter of note whose nickname was also "Bendy" and who famously defeated a Ben Caunt.