Defendu

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Defendu

Also known as	Fairbairn's Gutter Fighting
Focus	Hybrid
Country of origin	England
Creator	William E. Fairbrain, Eric Anothony Sykes
Parenthood	Boxing, Cornish wrestling, Savate, Jujutsu, Judo, Pakua
Olympic sport	No

Defendu is a modern martial art developed by William E. Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes. It is a hand to hand combat system based on jujutsu that was developed to train the Shanghai Municipal Police, and was later taught in expanded form to Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and Special Operations Executive (SOE) members during World War II.^[1]

Based on his training at Kodokan in Tokyo, and fights he was involved in during his police work, Fairbairn began to develop his own system of hand to hand combat, Defendu. It was designed to be simple to learn and provide effective results. Fairbairn published a book, Defendu, in 1926^[2] (re-printed as Scientific Self Defence in 1931), illustrating this method and it is here that the term "Defendu" first appeared.^{[citation needed]}

This confused early readers of the book, who assumed that the techniques within had some basis in the Eastern martial arts that Fairbairn had learned. Thus, in an attempt to highlight the originality of Fairbairn's material, the term did not appear in the 1931 edition of the book.

Fairbairn was called upon by the British to help train Allied troops in World War II, by which time Defendu had a well established record.^{[citation needed]} Fairbairn and others expanded on this system to create the Close Quarters Combat system that was then taught to the troops. This system was built on Defendu, but modified for military applications, rather than police and riot control.

The original Defendu was oriented towards self-defense and restraint, while the Close Quarters Combat system concentrated on rapid disabling of an opponent, with potentially lethal force. The militarized version of Defendu is described in Rex Applegate's book Kill or Get Killed.

Fairbairn published several more books on the subject of self defense, all of which refer to Defendu only in relation to the earlier book.

WWII

The start of WWII saw the Allied forces needing every advantage to give their soldiers and special forces a winning edge. They found one such edge in Fairbairn's system. Immediately, Fairbairn was commissioned in the British Commandos and ordered to teach a lethal version of his system at the Commando school in Scotland.

It was at this top secret Scottish location that Col. Rex Applegate of the U.S. Army studied under Fairbairn. Through Col. Applegate and other Instructors such as Col. Anthony Biddle, these highly effective skills were taught to U.S. Troops including US Marines and Rangers as well as OSS operatives and later to the FBI and CIA as the foundation of their basic training.

Once the British Commando School in Scotland was able to produce its own Fairbairn/Sykes qualified instructors, both men were transferred. Fairbairn to North America, and Sykes to SOE, where he trained special agents for behind the lines duties. Fairbairn's 'special assignment' in Oshawa, Canada, was to teach his system to Allied special forces at the most highly classified training operation of WWII, Camp X. Agents were trained in depth to dispose of their enemy quickly and quietly with brutal effectiveness. Following his instruction at Camp X, Fairbairn was rejoined by Col. Applegate to form the United States Camp B, now known as Camp David.

This introduction of 'The Fairbairn Fighting System' at Camp X in conjunction with input from many highly skilled instructors with various backgrounds and fighting skills was the beginning of the evolution of Defendo. As close quarters battle or unarmed combat training progressed throughout this period, it was added to and refined utilizing western fighting principles, eventually becoming referred to in slang as Defendo by Allied soldiers.

Post WWII

Allied victory in WWII marked the end of wide spread instruction of Defendu within North America as soldiers returned to their civilian lives, and only professional military personnel remained to continue the training. Following WWII, Defendu was adopted by a large number of police agencies throughout Canada and the U.S. including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Sources

• DEFENDU - by W.E Fairbairn (Author), Kelly McCann (Foreword)
• The Close-Combat Files of Colonel Rex Applegate by Rex Applegate (Author), Chuck Melson (Author)

References

1. ^ Carl Cestari (2006). "What Is Defendu?". http://www.gutterfighting.org/WhatIsDefendu.html. Retrieved 2007-06-23. 
2. ^ "DEFENDU". http://www.paladin-press.com/detail.aspx?ID=1518. Retrieved 2007-06-23. 

External links

• The Source by Peter Robins (American Combatives)
• Shanghai Municipal Police by Robert Bickers
• [1] Defendu (Fairbairn's Gutter Fighting)
• W E Fairbairn Gentleman & Warrior The Shanghai Years (2005) First biography on Fairbairn. By Peter Robins
• [2] International Defendo Federation
• [3] Modern Defendo
• [4] Defendo Magyarország
• Defendu Association Poland
• [5] W.E. FAIRBAIRN- THE LEGENDARY INSTRUCTOR. By Phil Matthews