Bartitsu Club Fencing Master – Captain Alfred Hutton (1903)

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 28th February 2019
Captain Hutton (right) illustrates the art of rapier and dagger fencing.

A newly-discovered photograph of Captain Alfred Hutton, who is now famed as a pioneer of historical European martial arts reconstruction and of the establishment of competitive fencing as an English sport during the late 19th century.  He was also one of the select group of “antagonistics” instructors who taught at the Bartitsu School of Arms.

It’s likely that Hutton first met Edward Barton-Wright at the well-received historical fencing and Bartitsu exhibition at the London Bath Club on the evening of March 9th, 1899.  The two men later collaborated in another joint exhibition at Guys’s Hospital.

Hutton was a member of the “committee of gentlemen” responsible for vetting new prospective members of the Bartitsu Club, where he also taught various forms of historical fencing.  In addition to teaching his own classes, he studied both the Vigny method of stick fighting and jiujitsu with his fellow instructors.

More information about Captain Hutton’s colourful martial arts career can be found in the book Ancient Swordplay: The Revival of Elizabethan Fencing in Victorian London.

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