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Edith Garrud
Summary
Edith Margaret Garrud (née Williams; 1872–1971) was a British martial artist, suffragist and playwright. She was the first British female teacher of jujutsu and one of the first female martial arts instructors in the western world.
Garrud was introduced to jujutsu in 1899 alongside her husband William; they studied under Sadakazu Uyenishi and she later opened her own London dojo. A supporter of women's suffrage, Garrud joined the Women's Freedom League in 1906 where she set up a self-defence club. To advertise how women could benefit from jujitsu, Garrud wrote fictional self-defence scenarios for magazines that she sometimes staged as suffrage theatre performance with costumes and props.
Garrud is best remembered for training the Bodyguard unit of the Women's Social and Political Union in jujutsu self-defence techniques to protect their leaders from arrest and from violence from members of the public. Garrud is credited with forging the image of the militant suffrage campaigner trained in hand-to-hand combat that came to represent the militants’ struggle for the vote.
Edith Margaret Williams was born in 1872 in Bath, Somerset. After being raised in Wales she pursued her education in England where she trained as a physical culture instructor for girls. In 1892, she met William Garrud, a fellow instructor, specialised in boxing and wrestling, at a class he was giving. They married the following year, and moved to London, where William worked as a physical culture trainer for universities.
In 1899, the Garruds were introduced to the art of jujutsu by witnessing a demonstration by Edward William Barton-Wright, an Englishman who had studied Shinden Fudo Ryu jujutsu and Kodokan judo while living in Kobe, Japan between 1893 and 1897. Barton-Wright promoted jujitsu and other martial arts via music hall exhibitions and tournaments. He was also the founder of Bartitsu, a "New Art of Self Defence", and the owner of The Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture.
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