Clive Bentley Purchase 1939 - 2026

It is with great sadness that we report the death of long time club member Clive Purchase who passed away on the 13th May 2026.

Coppa Ferrania in Milan in 1966: L to R: Steve Higginson, Bill Hoskins, John Glasswell, Clive Purchase, John Pelling.

Clive fenced in one world championship, at Moscow in 1966, where he succumbed in the first round. He was third in the National Epée that year, having been runner up in the 'junior' epee in '64 (that 'junior' was a status event, not an age one), and he was 6th in the British sabre championship in 1970. He fenced abroad at épée a number of times in 1966 - 1968, including being part of a winning team in the Coppa Ferrania in Milan in 1966 and a third placed team in Bergamo in 1968.

(Thanks to Peter Jacobs and Sandy Leckie, with reference to Edmund Gray’s book ‘Modern British Fencing 1964 – 1981’)