Major Charles (Charlie) Bradshaw Owens
I started fencing in Western Australia with No 2 Battery Australia Field Artillery with members of that Unit and took up Mounted Sabres with the above under Master Gunner Manley. I later started a class in Kalgoorlie in 1910, teaching Foils and Sabre and in 1914 taught the Officers of the 84th Infantry Regiment Sabre.
During April 1914 I met a number of Swordsmen brought to Kalgoorlie by the late Professor Henry Seguy a noted swordsman and one time World Champion and Master of Arms who also was Australian Champion beating a Captain Jennings for that title which I believe was the last and only time that an Australian championship was competed for.
I met all these fencers that the Professor brought to Kalgoorlie and was successful against all of them. The 1914-18 War put an end to fencing activities and it was not until 1921 that I again started teaching with the Postal Institute, Perth where I was Instructor in Boxing and Ju - jitsu for somewhere about 9 years. I fought Corporal W. Bushy of the New South Wales Lancers for the Western Australian title at the Shaftsbury Theatre and won the same and some time later Professor Seguy gave me the Australian title at a Public reception instead of fighting for it as it was considered that he was too old. I continued on with fencing Instruction in different clubs and a few years ago I started the Perth Amateur Fencing Club founded in 1923
(P.A.F.C.)
Lending all my equipment to them or might I say I asked my fencing pupils to start a Club as I had wanted to do for a long time. Some of my pupils have been very successful in Eastern States tournaments. Mr. Frank Watzze, Mr. Kevin King and Mr. Alex Croll of whom you have some knowledge, Watzze 1941 – 42 – 47 and 48 Victorian Champion. Kevin King was club champion and Alex Croll runner up foil champion.
1941 there were one or two clubs started in Perth but did not last long - two years at the most, one under the late Arthur Saunders and one under Mr. Gorringe who had been more or less a pupil of the above Saunders these two are now defunct, but the P.A.F.C. continues to carry on with great success. The club members number now about the 40 mark and pupils are still coming in and recently decided to carry on through the summer months we have always closed the season at the end of November, so you will see that fencing is definitely on the upgrade in this State and has been carried on continually from1910 up to date I teach Sword; Foil; Epee; Foil and Dagger; Cloak and Dagger and Quarterstaff.
Chas B. Owens
Instructor Perth Amateur Fencing Club
Professor Seguy also had a class in Perth - I don’t know if he continued during the First War, but he did have a school when I met him again in 1921 when I started the Postal Institute Club and he carried on until a few years before his death. He died at the age of 86 a wonderful old man.
By 1941 World War Two was having a marked effect on the sport of Archery in the State.
Many archers had joined up in the forces and had gone away to the War but in fact there were two archers left in the State shooting consistently during the War that was Charlie Owens and his wife Kathleen, using the ground at the University. After a lengthy period of negotiations by the Amateur Sporting Federation of W.A. archers were given permission to use a ground at the University. Archery and the War plodded on. Their paths crossed when in 1942 arrangements were made for some members to act as a guerrilla defensive force under Vice President Charlie Owens by using bows and arrows if hostilities actually came to Perth.
This may be humorous but in the beginning of the war the soldiers were using broom handles to train with, and the joke that was going around at the time was: “Halt! Or I will fill you with white ants”.
Owens Gallery
