Franklyn Roy Bruno was born at Hammersmith Hospital in London. He was the youngest of 6 children from the union of his parents Lynette & Robert Bruno. Michael, Eddie, Faye Joanne, and Angela are his siblings. His parents settled down in Wandsworth in London. His father Robert who was from Dominica passed away in 1975, while his mother Lynette was a district nurse and a Pentecostal lay preacher from Jamaica. Growing up with five brothers and sisters in a terraced London house, He starting boxing at 9 at the local Wandsworth Boys Club. Frank learnt to box more acutely while at Oak Hall School in Sussex, an establishment for 'problem' children. During his amateur career, he amassed a 20-1 career, losing to (and eventually beating) Joe Christie while representing the Philip Game Amateur Boxing Club. His amateur career culminated with Frank boxing for Young England and becoming the youngest ever Amateur British Champion at the age of 18. Frank became a professional boxer in 1980, after twenty-one consecutive wins by knockout. As Great Britain had been starved of World champions in the Heavy weight division for the 20th century there became whispers of suggestions of this big lad from South London getting to the heights of a World championship. But there was to be a wait for a few years! In March 1984, at Wembley future world Heavyweight champion, American James 'Bonecrusher' Smith, then a boxing journeyman, stopped Franks Promised Land in its tracks when he defeated Frank by knockout in the tenth and final round of their bout, with Frank leading on all three judges' cards. This would not be the last time Frank went on to loose a contest he had been clearly winning and would have emerged victorious had he survived until the final bell.
