Derrick Cawthorne

Derrick Cawthorne started fencing at London´s Kentish Town evening institute in 1945. In 1956 he was the British junior foil champion after winning all five fights in the final pool. A London telephone engineer, Cawthorne was the 1960 British foil champion after a three-way tie that also involved Allan Jay, and Len Cook (Polytechnic). Consequently, Cawthorne beat world champion Jay twice on his way to winning the title. Despite being selected for that year’s Roma Olympics, however, Cawthorne was only a reserve as it was felt that he lacked the necessary international experience to compete in such an event.

Cawthorne eventually made his Olympic début at Tokyo in 1964. He took part in the team foil event in which Britain was eliminated from their pool after losing to Poland (the eventual silver medallists) and Italy. Fencing was in the Cawthorne family blood, and his daughter Hilary was a British champion and Olympian, as was her husband Jim Philbin.