1911 England–Holland women's fencing competitions

The 1911 England–Holland women's fencing competitions were international fencing competition of British fencers against fencers of Salle De Vos, The Hague the Netherlands who visited London from 16-20 March 1911. The main reason for their visit was competition on 17 March organized as a celebration that fencing master D. Dreese who had been associated with Bertrands Fencing Academy for 20 years. During these four days, the competitions took place at the Bertrands Fencing Academy located at the Warwick Street in London, the United Kingdom.

Background
While fencing was already practiced by women during the 19th century, fencing was in this era a male-dominated sport. Women's fencing was introduced in 1924 at the Summer Olympics. This fencing competition was one of the earliest international fencing competition in the history of women's fencing; after in 1910 an international meeting took place between England and Belgium where the English team was beaten by the Belgian team.

D. Dreese was a Dutch fencing master from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He was a successful fencer winning many prizes and also a successful trainer. By invitation of French fencer Bertrand Marie de Lesseps, who was settled in London, Dreese became a fencing master at the Bertrand’s Fencing Academy in 1881. He became very successful in London and decided later to emigrate to the United Kingdom.

Preparations and travel
In December 1910, after the 1910 England–Belgium women's fencing competition negotiations for this competition started between the Dutch Salle De Vos and the Bertrands Fencing Academy. The initial plan was to organize the competition in The Hague, the Netherlands in February 1911, including also a friendly women's match with participation of the Belgian team of fencing hall Verbrugge.

The Dutch team went to England by boat. The sea was turbulent during the boat trip. According to the newspaper De nieuwe courant everybody of the Dutch team became very seasick. Not everyone had recovered from this before the competition.

16 March
On 16 March a fencing competition took place between the five Dutch fencers of Salle De Vos against five British fencers of the Bertrands Fencing Academy. The British team included the 1908-1909 British champion Millicent Hall and the 1910 British champion Julia Johnstone.

+Dutch fencersNaamClubJulia Beelaerts van BloklandSalle De Vos H. LudenSalle De VosC. van DoornSalle De VosE. van den BergSalle De VosH. van den BergSalle De Vos

+British fencersNaamClub Bertrands Fencing AcademyD. CheethamBertrands Fencing AcademyMillicent HallBertrands Fencing AcademyJulia JohnstoneBertrands Fencing AcademyShipwayBertrands Fencing Academy

The jury consisted of members from as much as possible different fencing clubs, which was praised in the Dutch media. The jury members were: E. Martin Eduard was president (Bertrands Fencing Academy), miss. Cater (Oxford Fencing Club), Mrs. Eduards (salle Margri), miss. French (Oxford Fencing Club), miss. G. Daniels (Alexander House Gym.) and miss. A. B. Wakker (Kessards F. Club).

The Dutch team lost the competition with 17 against 8 points. Millicent Hall and Julia Johnstone were mentioned to be many times better than the other British fencers. Miss D. Cheetham was small but very fast. C. van Doorn was the best Dutch fencer, winning four of her five matches, including beating Millicent Hall. Of the other Dutch fencers the attitude was admired of E. van den Bergh and the calm of fencers Luden and Julia Beelaerts van Blokland. H. van den Bergh underperformed, because she had not yet recovered from her seasickness.

17 March
In the evening of 17 March 1911 was the celebration of fencing master D. Dreese who had been associated with Bertrands Fencing Academy for 20 years. Baron Gericke van Herwijnen had accepted the presidency on this matter. The competitions were led by N. Butterworth. Some important attendees this evening were jonkheer Quarles van Ufford, baron Leopold and dr. Rothschild. An important part of this celebration was the women's competitions of fencers from the Bertrands Fencing Academy against women's fencers of Salle De Vos.

The academy was partly decorated with Dutch flags. The competitions were preceded by an orchestra playing the Dutch national anthem (Het Wilhelmus) and the British national anthem (God Save the Queen).
The five women's fencers of Salle De Vos competed against five known British fencers. The Dutch ladies wore the flag of the Netherlands and orange on their arm.

+Dutch fencersNameHallJulia Beelaerts van Blokland (captain)Salle De Vos H. LudenSalle De VosC. van DoornSalle De VosE. van den BergSalle De VosH. van den BergSalle De Vos

+British fencersNameHall Bertrands Fencing AcademyD. CheethamBertrands Fencing AcademyD. JohnstoneBertrands Fencing AcademyRosamund JohnstoneBertrands Fencing AcademyShipwayBertrands Fencing Academy

The Dutch ladies won multiple matches. Newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad writes about the matches: "The Dutch ladies... ...showed themselves completely equal to the English fencers and received well-deserved applause from the large numbers of ladies and gentlemen".

Next to the women's competition there were matches of main fencers of the Bertrands Fencing Academy.
 British champions Julia Johnstone against Millicent Hall
 Fencing master De Vos ('Salle De Vos) against J. Katzenfort (Bertrands Fencing Academy)
 D. Dreese against Felix Bertrand

18-20 March
In the days after the competitions there were some small events as part of the visit of the Dutch team. On 18 March there was a friendly gathering of all fencers of Bertrands Fencing Academy with the Dutch team. On 20 March the Women's Fencing Club gave an  (a fencing match), in honor of the visit of the Dutch team. At that time it was forbidden for men to visit the women's fencing club. However, for this occasion an exception was made and mr. de Vos was allowed to visit the women's club.

References

Category:1910s in women's fencing
Category:Sport in the Netherlands
Category:Sport in London
Category:1911 in Europe