Peter Jacobs

Peter Jacobs was educated at Merchant Taylors’ and then Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he became a three-time fencing Blue 1960-62, and was on the winning team each time. In 1960, Jacobs had the distinction of being the first post-war undergraduate to win the UK’s oldest épée competition, the Miller-Hallett Cup. Having won the Universities Athletic Union épée title in 1961 he went on to win his first British épée title in 1962. He won it again in 1964 and 1970.

Having missed out on a medal by a single hit at the 1961 Summer Universiade, Jacobs won the épée title two years later at Porto Alegre, Brazil. He won just one world championship medal, a team silver at Paris in 1965, However, he won five British Empire/Commonwealth Games medals, winning three épée team golds 1962, 1966 and 1970, and individual bronze medals in 1962 and 1970. Unfortunately, he could not repeat his medal success in his two Olympic appearance. He went to a third Games 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 1973-76.

An FIE Member of Honour, Jacobs was awarded the “MBE”, the “Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”, in 2019 in recognition of “Services to British and International Fencing”. Mr. Jacobs was a member of the FIE Executive Committee for 24 years, including 12 years as Secretary-Treasurer. He was also a member of the FIE Legal Commission between 1977 and 2004 and from 2013 to the present (2019). He was an A-graded FIE epee referee and worked on the Directoire Technique (DT) at multiple FIE world championships and Olympic Games.