Allan Jay, fencer who won Olympic medals and was in the vanguard of Britain’s golden age in his sport – obituary

Allan Jay, who has died aged 91, was a fencer who won two Olympic silver medals and was Britain’s flag bearer in the closing ceremony at the 1964 Games in Tokyo; alongside Gillian Sheen and his friend and rival Bill Hoskyns, he was a leading figure in the golden age of British fencing.

In the run-up to the Rome Olympics in 1960 The Daily Telegraph made him one of the favourites: “Of exceptionally powerful build, for a fencer, Jay is a magnificent foil and épée man justly feared throughout Europe. Well versed in court craft, his bouncing energy and honest beam of pleasure whenever he wins a fight gives his opponents an impression of confidence greater than he feels himself.”

Despite debilitating stomach cramps which put him out of the foil, he fought his way through to the individual épée final against the strong Italian Guiseppe Delfino. With two hits apiece and time running out, the match went into sudden-death, which Delfino quickly won. Alongside Hoskyns and four others, Jay added silver in the team épée.

Allan Louis Neville Jay was born into a Jewish family on June 30 1931 in London; the family moved to Australia, where he spent part of his childhood. His father died fighting in the Second World War in 1943, and the following year young Allan enrolled at Cheltenham College, where he took up fencing aged 13.

In 1950 he won gold with Australia in the team épée at the Empire Games in Auckland, as well as the individual épée gold at the Maccabiah Games for Jewish athletes (he would win five more Maccabiah golds). He then returned to Britain to study Law at St Edmund Hall, Oxford – he believed that his fencing skills won him a place – and in 1952 he won the British épée title (he would take three more, in 1959, 1960 and 1961, and was also the foil champion in 1963).

After competing in his first Olympics, for Australia in 1952 in Helsinki, he switched allegiances to Britain and won three medals at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver in 1954 – two team golds in the épée and foil and a bronze in the individual foil. (The épée and foil are similar, though the épée is slightly heavier, which can make points more difficult to score, and there is more emphasis on defence and counter-attack.)

The following year, at the World Championships in Rome, he won a team foil bronze with Britain. In 1957 he took individual foil bronze, and in 1959 he had a year to remember: he became the first – and so far only – British man to win the foil world title, was admitted as a solicitor, and got married. “It has been downhill since, with only two Olympic medals!” he said in 2012. In all, between 1955 and 1965 he won six world titles.

At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne he had narrowly missed out on the medals, but at the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff he was part of the British team who demolished Australia in the foil team final to retain their title and beat Canada in the épée team final, also retaining their title,

His success continued throughout the 1960s: at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, despite carrying a knee injury he won silver in the individual foil, and gold in the team foil for the fourth Games in a row.

He was Great Britain’s flag bearer for the closing ceremony at the 1964 Olympics. “We were asked to dip our flags to where the Japanese Emperor was seated,” he recalled. “When I got to the royal box, I duly dipped the flag and, horror of horrors, one of the two ribbons which secured the flag to the pole gave way and the top half of the flag and pole parted company. I remember the headline in The Sunday Times the following day: ‘The flag that flagged’. And underneath that was a caption which started: ‘Portly Allan Jay…’ I have never forgotten those.”

After retiring from fencing, Jay, who was appointed MBE in the 1970 New Year’s Honours list, continued with his legal career and remained in the sport as an official with the international governing body, the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime. He still fenced every week into his 80s, sometimes with Bill Hoskyns, until his friend and former rival’s death in 2013.

Allan Jay is survived by Carole, his wife of 64 years, and their two daughters.

Allan Jay, born June 30 1931, died March 6 2023