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Pierre Vigny
From The Martial Arts Encyclopedia
Background/History
Pierre Vigny (1869 - ?) was a Swiss maitre d'armes (master at arms or fencing instructor) active in Europe during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In 1886 Vigny joined the Second Regiment of French Artillery at Grenoble. During his military service he began to reform the traditional sports of la boxe francaise (savate) and la canne (stick fencing) as practical self defense methods.
Leaving the Army in 1898, he opened a school of arms in the city of Geneva and then (circa 1900) moved to London, where he established a tradition of annual exhibitions of combat sports and self defense skills.
Hired as the Chief Instructor for E.W. Barton-Wright's Bartitsu Club, Vigny collaborated with Barton-Wright in refining his armed and unarmed combat systems. The Vigny method of walking stick defense was partially recorded in a series of articles by Barton-Wright, which were published in Pearson's Magazine during 1901. Some additional drills and techniques were recorded by Captain F.C. Laing, a British Army officer who had studied at the Bartitsu Club while on furlough in London, and who wrote an article on Vigny stick fighting for the Journal of the United Service Institution of India.
By late 1903 Vigny was operating his own self defense academy in London, assisted by his wife. The academy was frequently featured in magazine articles during the early 1900s and attracted some influential students, including Miss Baden-Powell, the sister of Lord Robert Baden-Powell who was the founder of the international Boy Scouts movement.
Vigny continued to promote tournaments and self defense exhibitions and also served as a hand-to-hand combat instructor at Aldershot Military School until the year 1912, when he returned to Geneva to open another self defense academy.
Pierre Vigny seems to disappear from the historical record after 1914 and it is possible that he re-joined the Army and was killed during the First World War.
Influence
Vigny's unique system of stick fighting was never fully recorded but it formed the basis of the "Walking Stick Method of Self Defence" detailed in a book by that title which was produced by H.G. Lang in 1923. Lang was a British police officer serving in India and introduced the system to police recruits there.
During the early 1940s Lang's book was used as a resource by the Hagana (Jewish defense forces) in Palestine, thereby forming the basis of modern Kapap stick fighting.
