Betty Arbuthnott

Betty Carnegy-Arbuthnott first competed in the national foil championship in 1921,at the age of 15. She was still contesting the title in her mid-40s, and in that time, won the title on two occasions, in 1939 and 1947. They were consecutive titles because of the intervention of the War.

In her early days. Carnegy-Arbuthnott was a member of the Salle Gravé, and she helped them win the Inter Salle Cup for the first time in 1927. In the early 1930s she was, on her day, the best female fencer in Britain. She made her début in the World Championships at Wien (Vienna) in 1931, and won a team foil silver medal at Bucharest in 1933, and a team bronze at Monaco in 1950. Carnegy-Arbuthnott later fenced for Gauthier’s Penguins, and appeared in two Olympics, 1936 and 1948. Shortly after the London Games, she moved to the London Fencing Club, and one of her last major honours was in helping them to win the 1951 Ladies’ Foil Team Championship. In terms of individual honours, she won the coveted Desprez Challenge Cup in 1935 and 1936, and the Ladies’ Amateur Fencing Union (AFU) silver bowl in 1935 (the inaugural year) and 1938. Carnegy-Arbuthnott was a former president of the Ladies’ AFU.