John "Emrys" Lloyd OBE 1905 - 1987

Emrys Lloyd, whose Olympic fencing career spanned 20 years (1932-52), died on June 28. He was 81.

At his first Olympics in 1932 he came fifth, and 16 years later in London he was fourth. These were years when the Games were still amateur in most senses of the word. The atmosphere was epitomised in how he coped with disappointment when he missed the bronze in 1948 by a whisker. His first thought was to apologise to his captain Charles de Beaumont "I am terribly sorry, Charles," he said. John Emrys Lloyd was born in 1905 and educated at Winchester and King's College, Cambridge. His fencing started by accident: an injury at school caused by a nail in his shoe prevented him from playing cricket. In 1924 he was first winner of the reconstituted Public School Championship. (The last winner had been Oswald Mosley in 1912; an earlier one had been Winston Churchill.)

At Cambridge he became an international fencer, but found time to cox the University Trial Eight, which led to his becoming a member of Leander.

He was primarily a foilist, and was usually reluctant to fence at sabre in the Great Britain team. Success followed success. He was the first foil fencer to win the national championship in four successive years and the only one to win it seven times.

His greatest national championship success was in 1937 when he was hit only twice, although he always ranked as his own best performance the third place he gained in the European (or World) foil final at Budapest in 1933, when a hit more would have given him the title.

In the 1932 Olympics he achieved the unique feat of representing Britain in both fencing and rowing. His two-team role came about in the casual way that many things happened in prewar Olympics, when the British contestants were crossing the Atlantic for the Los Angeles Games. He was noticed by the captain of the Rowing Eight: Emrys was diminutive, and he wore a Leander tie; he found himself signed up as reserve cox.

He was also unique in having been both a competitor and a member of the organizing Committee at the 1948 Games. He carried the British flag at the opening ceremony at Wembley.

A past president of the AFA, he was on the committee for 40 years and was president of the Welsh Amateur Fencing Union. In 1978, he was honoured with the Silver Olympic Order.

Emrys Lloyd was one of the best technicians of British fencing, and elegant to watch. His character was reflected in his fencing: detached, balanced, alert, perhaps a little austere as might befit a Wykehamist. He set himself the highest standards.

He was also a leading commercial lawyer with an international practice and for years was honorary legal adviser to the British Olympic Association and adviser to the Central Council of Physical Recreation,

He is survived by his wife Elizabeth (daughter of Dr. P.G. Doyne, another foil champion) and by a son and a daughter. A second daughter predeceased him.

Mary Glen-Haig