What is an Usher?
Usher is a historical rank in the English Guild of Maisters of Defence. Ushers were senior students who assisted fully qualified teachers. In TAS an Usher is either a senior student who assists a Provost in teaching or who sets up a new branch of TAS in a new location and who teaches according to a curriculum supplied by the Provosts.
Shaun Douglas
Shaun was born in Warrnambool, Victoria in 1970. From 1997 to 2003 he practised western boxing, Muay Thai and Filipino Escrima stick fighting.
He has also done weight training for many years, competing in local powerlifting competitions.
He has also done weight training for many years, competing in local powerlifting competitions.
In 2003 Shaun moved to Tasmania and in 2005 he started training under provost Stephen Hand in George Silver's English backsword. He achieved the rank of scholar in 2009, and in 2014 was ranked free scholar with his second weapon being the large centre grip shield.
Shaun competed in the inaugural modern world broadsword championship, held in Sydney in 2015 making the finals and placing fifth.
Shaun competed in the inaugural modern world broadsword championship, held in Sydney in 2015 making the finals and placing fifth.
In 2017, Shaun moved to Port Douglas, North Queensland. In 2018 he competed in the World Broadsword Championship in Sydney and again placed fifth. Soon after that, Shaun opened a HEMA school which ran for about 2 years before returning to Tasmania in 2021, settling on King Island. He opened a school teaching his core weapon, English backsword according to George Silver. Shaun also teaches sword and large centre grip shields and for about 20 years he has been an avid English longbowman, teaching lessons in its use. In 2025 Shaun again competed in the world broadsword championship, this time being held in Melbourne, where he placed fourth.
Joseph Gora
Growing up in the eighties, I developed a fascination with swords, martial arts and fencing. I took my first formal lessons in foil in 1992 when I was 11 years old. At around the same time, I joined a medieval re-enactment group and continued to love both. It is to my classical fencing school that I owe my first exposure to fencing texts, reading Silver, Swetnam and Saviolo by my early teens, and moving on to Hope, Lonnergan, Palas Armata, L'Abbat and any other English translations I could get my hands on back in the nineties. I also became aware that a faithful reproduction of contemporary swordplay requires a faithful reproduction of its arms, and having friends in the Medieval Society with antique weaponry I knew that we had a long way to go in this regard. I started working on manufacturing my own sword blades at this time - which I have continued to do. I met Stephen Hand with his new school of fencing in Hobart and assisted from the start - having already read Silver I was excited to see his ideas put forward. I owe it to Stephen's club that I met my future wife, and I continued for a few years until work required me to move to Launceston. After a short absence from fencing, Stephen alerted me to the presence of a new enthusiast on my side of the state and I met and joined Matthew Boyd- having assisted here since the beginning of the club.
For me there is no area of fencing that is not of interest and choosing one branch over another is never easy. I am keen on promoting the use of smallsword and rapier as smallsword takes me right back to many of the early skills I learned in high school with twists and peculiarities of its own, and I love the elegance and deadliness of the rapier having studied Fabris, Giganti and Palas Armata. I am also a great admirer of Lonnergan and the presentation of broadsword, smallsword, and spadroon as a holistic system, and I equally admire late sabre play as found in Waite and Burton.
For me there is no area of fencing that is not of interest and choosing one branch over another is never easy. I am keen on promoting the use of smallsword and rapier as smallsword takes me right back to many of the early skills I learned in high school with twists and peculiarities of its own, and I love the elegance and deadliness of the rapier having studied Fabris, Giganti and Palas Armata. I am also a great admirer of Lonnergan and the presentation of broadsword, smallsword, and spadroon as a holistic system, and I equally admire late sabre play as found in Waite and Burton.
Lewis Hand
Lewis Hand was born in 1997. At the age of 11 he started training in HEMA, playing his Scholar’s Prize in 2011 and Free Scholar in 2014. At the age of 17 years and 364 days Lewis won the inaugural Junior World Broadsword Championship. In 2018 Lewis got 4th place in the Senior World Broadsword Championship as well as winning the Tasmanian Swordplay Symposium Broadsword tournament. Since 2022 Lewis has been acting as Usher, running beginner classes and conducting full classes while his father teaches overseas. He is currently working towards the rank of Provost.