In the latter part of the 19th century, European fencing (especially in England) was suffering a decline which put the greater fencing community in a situation similar to ours today. The fencing community’s problem was slightly different than ours but the results were basically the same. Rather than losing audiences and participants to the “gaming” of fencing, they were losing their spectators and fencers due to the art becoming too academic. It still has the same general effect: fencing is not taken seriously and loses popularity. One of the things that stimulated the art during that first drop in popularity, re-energizing fencing for a little while, was ironically the thing that spelled the most doom for fencing in the end, the Olympics. Even before that mighty event however, there were a few who espoused the old traditions and values of swordplay. It can be argued that their input was, while less obvious, more beneficial in the long run. One such champion was Alfred Hutton.
Alfred Hutton had served in the “King’s Dragoon Guards.” As a soldier, he had seen the practical value of the sword exemplified by the fencing versions he employed in the salle d’armes. He was a good friend of Egerton Castle and Sir Richard Burton; both were noted fencers and scholars. He also found friendship with E. W. Barton-Wright and later formed a sort of partnership with him. That partnership was represented by a curious habit Hutton had of researching older weapons and trying to apply them in his fencing room. According to all written material we have on him, he was rather successful.
In the 1880s, Hutton began teaching historical weapons such as rapier and dagger, case of rapiers, long sword, and some ancient dagger play at a boys club attached to the school of arms at the London Rifle Brigade. In the following decade, he and Egerton Castle organized a series of historical fencing exhibitions throughout the London area. By 1900, they were noticed by some organizers in Belgium and invited to perform at “The Festival of Historical Swordplay” in that country. It was about this time that he made his acquaintance with Barton-Wright.
E.W. Barton-Wright had been in Japan learning Jiu-jitsu and had only recently arrived in London to open his school and teach Englishmen his “Bartitsu.” After collaborating with Hutton in his historical performances, Wright invited him to his Bartitsu club in Soho where Hutton taught his historical weapons. His students included several prominent London actors who took them for purposes of stage combat. He also had several of his young students from the London Rifle brigade’s School of Arms in his classes. Hutton apparently did well and there must have been some sharing of information because he taught a class on some jiu-jitsu based forms of humane control techniques to doctors for handling patients in psychiatric hospitals. He even wrote a monograph on jiu-jitsu techniques for schoolboys. Though it seemed that “antique” weapons and modern practical self defense did not mix, Alfred Hutton was living proof otherwise. He even gave a glowing review of Pierre Vigny’s method of self defense with the walking stick.
For years, Alfred had been a proponent of mixing the old with the new for practical purposes. The author of books such as “Old Swordplay” and “The Sword and the Centuries,” he held a firm place in historical fencing but his 1889 edition, “Cold Steel” did a lot to revitalize sabre fencing in Britain. Not only was he introducing a lighter though still substantial version of the sabre but he also included sections in the book on defense against the knife (using 16th century plates), the sabre versus the dueling sword, sabre vs. bayonet, and the constables truncheon. His method of sabre fighting relied heavily on modern Italian texts but still used much of the old English systems. It was his wish to bring his country up to speed with their neighbors across the channel without letting anyone forget how strong they had been in the sword a half century previously.
All in all, Alfred Hutton was a man’s man who brought some art back into fencing in turn of the century London. Though a picture of virility, he was also an erudite scholar who contributed much to the historical pursuit of the sword. His goals were at once the study of an ancient art and the application of said art to modern self defense. He advocated exercise as well as personal defense in these arts at a time when fencing was considered passé. Alfred Hutton was one of the reasons fencing as we classical practitioners know it still exists as a possibility in this ever changing world where the sport has so overshadowed the art. He is also one of the voices of note shouting the virtues of the historical weapons, a true champion of the cause.
Leave a Reply