The statue stands on a former public house in Snienton which was named after him.
William Abednego Thompson was the youngest of triplets born in Snienton, Nottingham on 18 October 1811; he was also the last of 21 children. The triplets were named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego after the young men in the book of Daniel who emerged unscathed from the fiery furnace.
He became an English bare-knuckle boxer already fighting by the age of 18, he fought his last fight at the age of 39 only just managing to defeat a young man, Tom Paddock in a fight that lasted over an hour. Bendigo was never defeatedin any of his fights.
He died on 23 August 1880, and buried in his mother’s grave in the former burial grounds in Bath street, now St Mary’s rest garden, his is the only grave not to have been moved and bears the inscription
"In life always brave, Fighting like a Lion;
In Death like a Lamb, Tranquil in Zion".
Bendigo had a massive fan base including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote a verse entitled “Bendigo’s Sermon
You didn't know of Bendigo?
Well that knocks me out!
Who's your board schoolteacher?
What's he been about?
Chock a block with fairy tales;
Full of useless cram,
And never heard of Bendigo
The Pride of Nottingham
