Allan Jay MBE 1931 - 2023

It is with great sorrow that we have learnt of the death of Allan Jay MBE, former member of the Epée Club, at the age of 91. Allan was one of Great Britain’s Olympians alongside Gillian Sheen and Bill Hoskyns.  

Allan competed originally as a student in Australia in 1950 winning his first Gold medal as part of the épée team in the British Empire Games (later the Commonwealth Games). After returning to Britain to study law at the University of Oxford and becoming a solicitor, he won the British Fencing Championships five times between 1952 and 1963, four at épée and once at foil. He competed in five Olympics in both épée and foil, winning silver medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics in individual and team épée. He was Great Britain’s flag bearer in the 1964 Olympic Games. He was a member of Salle Paul. 

At the same time, he was a medallist in the World Fencing Championships in 1955, 1957 and 1959. His achievement in 1959 of winning a gold medal at foil and a silver medal in épée has never been equalled! He was also a regular participant in the Maccabiah Games during the 1950s where he won three gold medals at épée. He was a member of the International Jewish Sport Hall of Fame and served as an official in the FIE for many years. He remained a great fencing enthusiast  to the last.  

He was awarded the MBE in 1970 in recognition of his services to fencing. 

He was originally invited to become a member of the Epée Club in 1958 but declined. A further invitation was proffered in 1985 which he then happily accepted and remained a member for some years thereafter 

A profile of his early years was published in the SWORD in April 2016 and is still available on the British Fencing website.  

A full obituary is to follow.

Lawrence Burr OBE

I was almost a contemporary and was in Budapest at the 1959 championships. Khabarov won and Delfino was third. At Rome the next year Delfino won ,Alan was second again and Khabarov was third.

Of course I fenced him many times. It was five hits then and if you were good enough to get a three / two lead ,you were in trouble. He would sit back on his rear leg and really fight and win 5/3.   He was a school at Cheltenham and started fencing there before his family emigrated to Australia

 Ian Spofforth