Bill Hoskyns


Henry William Furse Hoskyns MBE was a British fencer who appeared at six Olympic Games.,

Biography

Hoskyns, born in London won two silver medals in 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games. No British fencer has won an Olympic medal since. He competed with all three weapons but he was especially effective at Épée, where he was 1958 FIE [World Championships in Fencing|World Champion]. He is one of only five fencers to compete in at least six Olympic Games.
He was eight times British champion, winning three foil, four epee and one sabre title at the British Fencing Championships. Only Edgar Seligman had previously achieved winning the British title with the three different weapons and his great rival, Allan Jay failed to win the sabre title.
During the time that fencing was a sport at the Commonwealth Games, Hoskyns won nine gold and one silver medal. He won four golds for the England at [the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games|England team] at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales.
He also three gold medals and one silver at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and double gold at the 1970 Commonwealth Games.
At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, he was part of the British silver medal-winning épée team. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Hoskyns won silver in the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's épée|épée], losing to Soviet fencer Grigory Kriss in the final.