London Thames Fencing Club is the oldest club of its kind in the country,
celebrating its 150th anniversary in July 1998.
By the beginning of the Victoria era, fencing had been almost abandoned
in Britain in favour of gymnastics and exercise with Indian clubs. The
great Angelo era, when Domenico and his son Henry taught fencing to the
Prince of Wales and most of the English nobility, had vanished, as the
sword became obsolete, both as a weapon and as an article of fashion.
True, Angelo's School of Arms continued to exist, but it was a shadow
of its former glory and taught a stereotyped form of fencing with much
emphasis on correct style and posture. But there were still enthusiasts
to be found and two of them - George Chapman and Colonel the Honourable
Charles Maynard of the Life Guards - decided to form a club dedicated
to the study and pursuit of arms.
On 13 July 1848 at 213 Piccadilly, the London Fencing Club was born. Practically
all the original members were connected with the Brigade of Guards or
Household Cavalry. The subscription was £3 per year, equivalent
to £120 today, after an initial entry fee of £5 (£200
today). By the time of the club's Golden Jubilee 100 years ago, the subscription
had risen to £5 (£265 today), which is comparable to the current
charge.
By 1862, when the club moved to 51 Pall Mall, there were nearly 200 members.
Two years later the club moved to an address that was to be its home for
84 years: 7 Cleveland Row, opposite St James's Palace. Built on the site
of the Duke of Bridgewater's stables, these premises were gas-lit ‚
electric lighting was rejected by the committee in 1889 ‚ with pillars
on either side of a hall carrying a gallery, which was used for boxing.
There was a changing room and cubicles, and shower baths on the floor
below. As well as fencing, the club was used for various forms of gymnastics,
being equipped with parallel bars, a vaulting horse, springboards, rings
and climbing ropes. It was open daily from 10 am to 1 pm and from 3 pm
to 7 pm.
By special dispensation from the Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Cambridge,
officers on duty at St James's Palace were allowed to cross the road and
take a turn with the foils, a practice that continued until the Second
World War.
Until 1914 the club recorded the measurements and weight of its members.
Two particularly strong men made a special impression. Captain Rowley,
a small man with a 42 in chest and 14 in biceps, used to stand on a box
and wave a pair of Indian clubs, each weighing 26 lb and 3 ft 3 in high,
around his head. His feat was eclipsed by Colonel Fred Burnaby, 6 ft 3
in tall, weighing 15 st 7 lb and with a 47 in chest and biceps of 16 in,
who once carried a Shetland pony under each arm up a staircase for a bet.
Other famous members in the 19th century included the Earl of Cardigan,
of Charge of the Light Brigade notoriety; Edward, Prince of Wales, and
his brother Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh; the Duke of Marlborough, his son
the Marquis of Worcester and, in 1895, his grandson Winston Chuchill;
the banker Evelyn Baring, later Lord Cromer; the actor Sir Henry Irving,
the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, the artist Sir Arthur Cope, and the
fencing historians Egerton Castle and Captain Alfred Hutton, first President
of the AFA.These last two were among a small band of enthusiasts who promoted
fencing at every opportunity, arranging demonstrations and displays, giving
lectures and writing books.
During its first 76 years the club had only two secretaries: George Chapman,
1848-1892, and W E Hartopp, 1892-1924. Chapman, who fenced until well
into his 80s, was a memorable figure in the early life of the club. His
portrait embodies the Victorian era ‚ striking, keen eyed, his face
flanked by mutton-chop whiskers and surmounted by a pork-pie cap.
Club Minutes and record books provide glimpses into the cost of fencing
in the 19th century. The subscription in 1898, as mentioned earlier, was
£5 (£265), but one of the founder members on his return from
China persuaded the committee to reinstate him at the old rate of £3
(£160). The club bought foil blades from Wilkinsons at 12/- per
dozen, equivalent to £2.65 each today, and over one eight-year period
required 5000 blades. The senior master, Vital Lebailly, had a salary
of £170 a year (£9000 today), on condition that he did not
teach at any other club; his assistant, Emile Fontaine, received £130
(£6900) and the club steward, David Brown, just £70 (£3700).
Two years later Brown, who had worked at the club for about 50 years,
was reprimanded for addressing a new member as if he were an old friend.
In a memorable Assault at Arms in 1899 for the benefit of Professor Lebailly,
a galaxy of fencing stars from France and Italy took part. But this was
a rare departure for a committee that was extremely conservative, shunning
publicity and frowning upon members who took part in competitions outside
the club.
For the first 100 years of its existence the club was exclusively male,
although one remarkable exception was Miss Blaise Fitzroy, who was elected
in 1866. Tradition has it that members were so embarrassed by the frequent
visits of this lady, well known for her beauty and charm, that the committee
passed a rule forbidding women, even as visitors. Gentlemen met for physical
development and exercise and to enjoy the pleasure of each other's company.
A high standard of good manners was observed. It is recorded that, if
a member hit his opponent with a remise, he removed his mask and apologised.
In 1900 Professor Magrini was appointed by the club to teach the new style
of sabre with the light fencing weapon introduced by the Italians.
In 1901 the Prince of Wales, a club member for many years, became King
Edward VII. One of the first honorary positions he accepted was to become
patron of the London Fencing Club.
When the club's premises were pulled down for redevelopment in 1905, some
members, led by the all-round competitive sportsman Lord Desborough, took
the opportunity to break away and form the Sword Club for those who wished
to enter competitions. Membership was still restricted to men with a recognised
position in society. In proposing a Frank Waterer of Bagshot, one member
felt it necessary to write to the committee as follows:
"I enclose the nomination of my friend Waterer for the Sword Club.
I can only say that he is quite a proper person for your committee to
accept. It would perhaps not be necessary to say this, but I notice he
has described himself as a Nurseryman to which exception might be taken
by anybody who did not know the firm which has, I believe, been in existence
for a century or more and is known all over the continent and America".
In 1908 the club moved back to 7 Cleveland Row, into the top two floors
of a luxury block of flats built on the site. The salle had seven pistes
and was adorned with prints, portraits and caricatures illustrating the
history of fencing and the life of the club itself. It was to remain there
until 1948 when the lease expired and a move was made to 1A Tenterden
Street, near Oxford Circus.
Eventually, in 1914, the committee gave its approval to the holding of
matches with other clubs, but it was to be another six years before the
LFC had its first match with the Army Fencing Union, which it won convincingly
8-1 at foil, and 6-3 at epee and sabre.
Wars took their toll of members. Two fell in the Crimea, six in the Boer
War and 28 in the First World War.
In 1919 LFC absorbed the Sword Club and began charging members for lessons
at the rate of 8 guineas a year, on top of the £5 subscription.
The period up to the Second World War found the club at its strongest.
Its outstanding coaches - Mimiague at foil, Gauthier at epee and Delzi
at sabre - attracted the best fencers who between them won 42 individual
national titles in the 30 fencing years from 1905 to 1939 - 22 foil championships,
13 epee championships and 7 sabre championships.
Eminent members during this period included Edgar Seligman (twice champion
at all three weapons), Robert Montgomerie (champion five times at epee
and four times at foil), Ralph Sutton and Phillip Doyne (both foil champion
twice), Lt. Col. Ridley-Martin (twice sabre champion), Major Willoughby
(1914 foil champion), Martin Holt (twice epee champion), Stenson Cooke
(1923 foil champion), David Bartlett (twice foil champion), Major Guy
Harry (1928 sabre champion), Luke Fildes (1929 epee champion), Emrys Lloyd
(seven times foil champion), Sir Oswald Mosley (runner-up in the 1931
epee championship), Christopher Hammersley (1936 foil champion), Lord
Leveson-Gower later Admiral the Earl Granville (President of the AFA from
1946 to 1953), Charles de Beaumont (three times epee champion before the
war and once afterwards) and Dr Roger Tredgold (twice sabre champion before
the war and four times afterwards).
In the 30s the most interesting club event was the annual match with the
Golfers' Club of Paris, which contained many French internationals. Traditionally,
LFC always won in Paris and the Golfers in London.
Although the war years hit LFC badly, the club never closed its doors
entirely and was able to offer hospitality to British and Allied Service
fencers. This was due to people like Charles de Beaumont, who saved the
club's Italian coach Fortunato Delzi from being interned, and to the club
steward, Wilson, who kept the club clean and in good order in spite of
bombing, which blew out the glass in the roof and windows of the fencing
room.
The end of the war was marked by a major upheaval in the club's way of
life: women members were admitted for the first time. In its centenary
year the club finally moved out of 7 Cleveland Row, which was being redeveloped,
and into premises in Tenterden Street shared with the AFA and Salle Bertrand
under Punch Bertrand. The two clubs merged in 1953, when a more democratic
form of organisation evolved with, for the first time, the open election
of officers and a committee.
In 1956 the Hungarian coach Bela Imregi came to England and Charles de
Beaumont persuaded him to teach at LFC, although unpaid by the club. Under
the instruction of Punch and Bela the club continued its reign as one
of the most successful in the country.
The women foilists, led by Gillian Sheen (1956 Olympic gold medallist
and 10 times British foil champion), together with Betty Arbuthnot and
Mary Glen Haig (both twice British foil champion) and others, won the
national team championship 11 times out of 14 from 1949 to 1962. The sabreurs,
such as Roger Tredgold, Pierre Turquet and the Amberg brothers, were equally
dominant, winning the team championship 10 times in 14 years, followed
by the next generation - Sandy Leckie, Richard Oldcorn, John Rayden and
others - with six wins in nine years. Meanwhile the epeeists and men foilists
managed each to pick up two championships.
1962 was a momentous year for the club. With the lease of Tenterden Street
expiring in June, Charles de Beaumont had started the search for new premises.
He found a suitable plot of land behind the tennis courts at the Queens
Club and began negotiating with the Lawn Tennis Association for the lease
of a new fencing centre. But funding was a problem. Inexplicably, in May
the premises shared by the club and the AFA in Tenterden Street burnt
down with the club library and much historical material. The insurance
money was just enough to allow the new De Beaumont Centre to be built,
the AFA contributing three quarters and the club one quarter of the cost.
But the upheaval resulted in a drop in membership and when Bela Imregi
moved to the Poly in search of paid employment many of his pupils went
with him. A new generation of sabreurs joined the club from 1968 to 1973
under the influence of the glamorous Bulgarian coach George Ganchev.
In 1977, on the retirement of Punch Bertrand, the LFC merged with Thames
Fencing Club, acquiring, along with new members, its masters Bill Harmer-Brown,
Brian Pitman and Frank Charnock.
The club flourished socially in its purpose-built centre, attracting visiting
fencers from all over the world to its facilities and friendly atmosphere.
But relations with the AFA became strained over the disputed cost of maintenance.
Eventually, in 1991 the AFA negotiated the sale of the De Beaumont Centre
to the Lawn Tennis Association and the club, with its 25% share of the
proceeds, began the difficult task of finding suitable new premises.
After accommodation in several unsatisfactory halls, which resulted in
a severe drop in membership, the club settled into the purpose-built fencing
salle of St Paul's School, under the guidance of development manager Bob
Bales.
Malcolm Fare
written in celebration of LTFC's 150th anniversary but sadly never published.
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Central Club: St Paul's School Fencing Salle, Lonsdale Road, Barnes, London SW13 9JT
Beginner's Club: Ravenscourt Theatre School, 8-30, Galena Road, London, W6 OLT
info@londonthamesfencingclub.com
Tel: 0845 094 4057
Mailing address: LTFC
25 Lombard Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 3TZ
