Instructors
The Dawn Duellist Society teaches classes every week. These classes are lead by instructors with years of experience and research behind them, who have been approved for teaching and assessed by their peers in the nuances of martial arts instruction.
The current instructors are:
Mr Gareth Hunt
Gareth Hunt was born and raised in Edinburgh. He first encountered fencing whilst at school and continued to fence with the Napier University Fencing Club. Not long after the DDS was formed in 1994, Gareth became an enthusiastic member, and eventually also took on teaching duties. Since then Gareth has studied most fencing arts, in particular sabre, rapier and sidesword with companion pieces such as dagger, buckler and target. In 2001 Gareth became one of the first instructors to be certified by the British Federation for Historical Fencing, and between 2006 and 2009 was President of the DDS. Gareth teaches sabre, sidesword, knife and rapier classes for the DDS.
Mr Ian Macintyre
Ian Macintyre is the current DDS President, and a native of Edinburgh. Having attending DDS since 1998 Ian was accepted as a DDS instructor in 2003, having been mentored by Gareth Hunt, and passed his BFHS Certified Instructors assessment in October 2007. Ian's chief fencing passions are military sabre, in particular the works of Captain Alfred Hutton, 19th century stick arts and French Courtsword, all of which he teaches at the DDS. In 2009 Ian set up a small school on Fife called Black Boar Swordsmanship School, but continues to teach and take an active part in the DDS.
Miss Katie Murray
Katie Murray is a longstanding member of the DDS. Her particular interests are body mechanics and movement, which she is enthusiastic to impart during the warm up sessions she leads before each DDS class. Katie is particularly keen on rapier, sidesword and smallsword, commencing study of Capo Ferro, Di Grassi and Angelo. Also a keen capoeirista, Katie spent two months in Brazil in early 2007 training in the Brazilian martial art of capoeira.
Mr Martin Page
A self-described "howling Medievalist", Martin Page teaches the Tuesday German Longsword class. He was one of the driving forces behind the small DDS study group that spent five years reconstructing the German system based entirely on original texts and – sometimes painful – experimentation. He claims that he was a complete klutz back when he joined DDS, and once hit himself on the head with his own sword. However, we would like to think that this and his boundless enthusiasm makes him a better and more sympathetic instructor.
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