Major General James G. Blunt

Peter Jacobs MBE (born 26 September 1938) is a British épée fencer who competed at the Olympics.

Early and personal life

Jacobs was born in Pinner, Greater London, Great Britain, to Jewish parents.[1][2][3][4] He attended Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied Classics.[5]

Fencing career

Jacobs was a three-time fencing Blue from 1960–62, and was on the winning team each time. In 1960, he became the first post-war undergraduate to win the UK’s oldest épée competition, the Miller-Hallett Cup. He also won the Universities Athletic Union épée title in 1961.[6]

Having missed out on a medal by a single hit at the 1961 Summer Universiade in Sofia, Jacobs won the épée title two years later at the 1963 event in Porto Alegre, Brazil.[6] In between the two Universiades he was a three times British fencing champion winning the épée title at the British Fencing Championships in 1962, 1964 and 1970.[3][7]

In total, Jacobs won five British Empire/Commonwealth Games medals - a bronze medal in men's épée and a gold medal in team épée at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia,[8] team gold at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica and again at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where he also won an individual bronze medal.[9][6]

Jacobs won one world championship medal, a team épée silver at the 1965 World Fencing Championships in Paris.[6]

Jacobs competed in individual and team épée at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, topping his pool in the first round with a 6–1 win–loss record. Four years later he again represented Great Britain in team épée at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.[1]

He went to a third Games in Montreal in 1976 as the Great Britain fencing captain. He was captain of the British épée team from 1971–76 and was the overall team manager from 1973–76.[6]

Jacobs wrote the foreword to the book entitled Fencing: Techniques of Foil, Epee and Sabre by Brian Pitman (1988).[10] He served on the Executive Committee of the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) for 24 years, 12 as secretary-treasurer, and stepped down in 2013 and was elected to the Legal Commission.[11] He was an A-graded FIE épée referee and worked on the Directoire Technique (DT) at multiple FIE world championships and Olympic Games.[6]

He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to British and International Fencing.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b "Peter Jacobs Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  2. ^ Rubinstein, W.; Jolles, Michael A. (27 January 2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Springer. ISBN 9780230304666 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ a b Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver, Roy Silver. Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports
  4. ^ Page 2, The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, 6 September 1968.
  5. ^ "Queens' Olympians, Blues & Internationals," Queens' College.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Olympedia – Peter Jacobs". www.olympedia.org.
  7. ^ "British Champions" (PDF). British Fencing. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  8. ^ "1962 Athletes". Team England.
  9. ^ Graham Groom. The Complete Book Of The Commonwealth Games
  10. ^ Brian Pitman. Fencing: Techniques of Foil, Epee and Sabre
  11. ^ "FIE Elections," The Sword, April 2013.
  12. ^ "Peter Jacobs, MBE". British Fencing. 14 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.

External links