Grahame Reid was born in Otahuhu Auckland the 29th of March 1937. Grahame’s mother was a nurse and his father was a wool classer and he had two younger brothers. Grahame’s family moved to Wellington during the war and he attended primary school at Kilbirnie and Ngaio in Wellington.

The young Grahame.

In 1948 his family moved from Wellington to Dunedin where he attended Wakari Primary School and Otago Boys high school. Grahame played most available sport at school other than rugby league, simply because he explained it was not available back then.

Grahame's interest in golf started young.

Choir Boy

On completing high school his parents wanted him to be a doctor but back in 1953 his parents simply could not afford to send him to medical school. They figured the next best thing was for Grahame to be a pharmacy apprentice where he would receive wages while training to be a pharmacist. He started out on the princely wage of 25 shillings a week the equivalent today of $2.50. Being a pharmacy apprentice meant also attending university part-time, undertaking correspondence courses and night tech as well as working full time. The first chemist shop Grahame worked at was Jimmy Waters in Princes Street, Dunedin and then the UFS on the other side of Princes Street from Jimmy Waters, followed by the UFS pharmacy in Taieri Road, Wakari, Dunedin.

During the 50s Grahame completed his national army service at Burnham Camp and post-national service was a territorial soldier in Dunedin. Grahame still remembers his commanding officer Captain Stanley of E Company back in 1956 's and 1957. Grahame, being a pharmacy apprentice back then, was excused from his apprenticeship by law to complete his compulsory national military service. Grahame enjoyed the national compulsory military service that much he considered joining the Army full time but had to return to his apprenticeship. He spent considerable time as a territorial soldier training in Tekapo up until the government stopped the territorial forces. Grahame explains being a pharmacist meant during his national military service he ended up in the medical corps where he was known as Doc and got to serve with fellow medics that included builders, plumbers, and electricians.

Grahame National Service – Burnham Camp

Grahame, front, 2nd from left.

Grahame became a fully qualified pharmacist in 1959, a year after starting his first unarmed combat training from Harry Baldock at the Baldock Institute in Dunedin 1958. Grahame learnt from Harry not only his form of military unarmed combat that he'd trained the New Zealand troops in for service in WWII, but also self-defence and jujitsu. He can well remember Harry's famous arm locks, headlocks, leg locks, and throws based on his wrestling background, which was his combative base and forte. Harry would utilize Grahame and other unarmed combat and jujitsu members to warm up his champion wrestling team by scrapping with them on the mat.

Grahame is very clear on what a capable fella Harry was when it came to unarmed combat and self-defence and how he enjoyed the Tuesday and Thursday nights training from Harry in unarmed combat, jujitsu and self-defence. One of Grahame’s favourite training partners was the Reverend Brinsley of St James Presbyterian Church of South Dunedin, and Grahame can recall how he very much enjoyed having him as a training partner along with Tom Williams as well.

Harry was light years ahead of his time in physical culture and his primary practices were weight training and wrestling. He was both a wrestling and weight training official as well as being the Army WWII unarmed combat chief instructor and held the rank of Sergeant Major. Grahame was training with Harry when in Jiu Jitsu everyone was a white belt and Harry was the instructor and it was very much a case of you gained respect by commitment and grades meant nothing. Later Harry introduced just the two belts white or black and with the unarmed combat you were either an exponent or the instructor.

Grahame married Gloria and moved to Christchurch where he bought a small chemist shop in the city. The business was not that good and Gloria was homesick so they sold up and moved back to Dunedin in 1968. Grahame owned chemist shops after his return to Dunedin starting with Clifford’s Pharmacy under Wains Hotel, followed by Clifford’s Pharmacy in the Exchange, the Golden Centre Pharmacy, and the pharmacy in George Street and then up until his retirement the Meridian Pharmacy in the Meridian Mall, George Street, Dunedin.

Mr and Mrs Grahame Reid

After 10 good years of training from Harry Baldock, Grahame joined up with Tommy Bolton in 1970 and became an exponent of Tommy Bolton's unarmed combat systems for the next five years. Tommy Bolton was a physical education instructor at King Edward technical college back in those days and later worked as a periodic detention officer. Grahame describes Tommy as a good bloke with a bit of a temper especially when he had a little too much to drink. His understudies always knew when he was not in a good mood and had been drinking as the carpet would be rolled back revealing the concrete floor that they were made to train on, not every night but when it happened it was pretty rough as Grahame remembers.

Tommy's background was unarmed combat in the Army and professional wrestling. To qualify to be trained in unarmed combat by Tommy you would have to spend two years training from him in physical fitness and weight training. Tommy’s school was at his Russell Street house where he had the upstairs training and changing room and downstairs unarmed combat training room.

Grahame was careful back then not to upset Harry by making his training at Tommy's known to him. Grahame describes Tommy's techniques as based on professional wrestling but a combative version of professional wrestling techniques where every move was designed to break a limb. Tommy employed no kicking skills but did teach an array of striking skills to complement his limb locks and bars. The Bolton system usual training regime went as follows: warm up, wrestling on your knees on the concrete floor then stand-up training on the concrete floor practicing all the strikes, headlocks, arm locks and the like.

When it came to test phases it was the warm up and training as previous followed by five or six fights once again on the concrete. The Bolton system had three phases of training, passing the first phase you become the recipient of a lapel patch for your blazer and for the next two phase tests, if you were successful, you would get an embroidered bar to be positioned below your lapel patch for each successful test.

Grahame remembers the knife defence that Tommy taught and describes it, as the old-fashioned way and nothing like the Todd Systems by any stretch of the imagination. Grahame says Tommy's knife defence wouldn't be recommended today.

Grahame remembers another later Todd Group member that was training from Tommy back then in Bob McDonald who also refereed the professional wrestling at the Dunedin Town hall and some of Tommy’s bouts there. A training partner that Grahame had many a scrap on the carpet and concrete with who he held in high regard was Doug McGrath. The late Johnny Burt, a respected Todd Group member, was also a level 3 member of Tommy Bolton's school but that was after Grahame's time there he recalls.

Looking back on some of Grahame's work as a pharmacist in relation to the fight game he recalls a pharmacist back then was expected to be able to make any potion and liniment and he made for boxing things like anti-cut as it was called back then to stop bleeding. There was a lot of money riding on the professional fight game and cuts could cost them dearly so they counted on Grahame to come up with a solution and he produced adrenaline 1000 a product to stop bleeding. He also made up a product called ferric chloride, which was used quite extensively back then as well, but the disadvantage was that it stained, would sting the eyes, and could cause skin burning and turned the skin brown, but it did stop the bleeding immediately.

Grahame's Mum visits him at work.

I can remember going to Grahame back in the early 80s and asking about knuckle conditioning skin tougher and if he had ever made it for fighters before that. He informed me that he had not but he quickly developed a very effective means of conditioning the skin around the knuckles for bare knuckle fighting.

Grahame was an advocate for fighters taking multivitamins back over 40 years ago when he saw these high performance athletes training so hard and their immune systems weakening and them getting colds and influenza.

I asked Grahame of his favourite techniques and systems and he replied the Baldock and Bolton systems were excellent for their times but they have been outdated by the Todd Systems, which are the most current. Grahame describes what he likes about the Todd System most is that it remains current and stays ahead of threats and trends.

Grahame, enemy party at Todd Group HQ

It was Grahame that recommended to Harry that I be permitted to conduct the unarmed combat training from the Baldock Institute. Prior to this I was training at the Baldock Institute and running my satellite unarmed combat facility. It was Grahame's recommendation to Harry that I moved to his facility and run the unarmed combat training from there that led to Harry training me to take over the facility. Grahame told Harry how we had limited space and how it would be good for us and for him and as Grahame put it if Harry was a bit old-fashioned but if he trusted you and had faith in you and knew you well then he would listen and it was not a problem common sense would prevail. If he did not know you he would close up and be very much closed shop.

Late in Grahame's career as a pharmacist he decided to undertake further training and qualifications in herbal medicine. He was aged 65 when he received his qualifications as a herbalist and was one of only six pharmacists in New Zealand to get their diploma in herbal medicine. When Grahame begun as a pharmacy apprentice in 1950 they used herbs a lot in pharmaceutical remedies and he found his study and earning a degree in herbal medicine later in life unquestionably interesting.

Grahame the proud grandfather

Although Grahame never competed in combat sports he did, like everyone that trained at Harry's in unarmed combat and jujitsu, get to box and wrestle as well and later when Grahame begun training with me at the intake inductions he would step up and partake in the milling mad minutes with the likely lad candidates keen to prove themselves without any trouble.

Grahame has trained at the Todd group for over 25 years and has been part of all phases of training and courses conducted and can still be found there two nights a week where he puts his lack of knee cartilage in both knees through their paces. He has moved up through the ranks and is a respected senior Phase 3 Todd Systems practitioner and life member. He has the cauliflower ears as testament to more than 50 years of combat conditioning and unarmed combat.

Grahame demonstrating sentry take-out skills. Todd Group.

Grahame's wife Gloria has been involved with operatic productions for over 45 years and is a life member of the operatic Society and is still involved with two productions as we undertake this interview. Grahame has one daughter and four sons that have all grown up and left home now. Grahame in his retirement is a keen golfer and also plays bowls as well as looking after a good-sized section at his Mosgiel home and has nine grandchildren.

Grahame in his retirement