Donald McBane

Portrait of Donald McBane, a Scottish fencing master, from Donald McBane's The Expert Swordsman's Companion.

Donald McBane (1664 – 12 April 1732) was a Scottish soldier and fencing master who was known for his skill in duelling.

Early life

Donald McBane was born in the Highland town of Inverness during the late seventeenth century. In 1687 McBane ran away from his apprenticeship as a tobacco spinner to enlist in the Scots Army. McBane served in the Royal Regiment till the end of the war in 1712, and was recommended by his Colonel for the Chelsea Hospital).

McBane also worked as a fencing master, and claimed to have participated in nearly one hundred duels. He fought as a gladiator at the Bear Gardens in Hockley-in-the-Hole and Marybone Fields, London, where he reportedly fought thirty-seven prizes. Among his opponents were some of the most celebrated swordsmen and fencing masters of the century, such as James Miller, Timothy Buck, and James Figg.

Later life In 1726, in a duel at Edinburgh, McBane gave his opponent seven wounds and broke his arm with a falchion. He said that he did it "at the request of several noblemen and gentlemen". Donald was now 63 and resolved to retire. The book includes McBane's memoirs as well as his extensive treatise on the art of fencing, and is a major source for the study of Scottish swordsmanship. McBane's life and writings are featured in a number of classic works on fencing, including Egerton Castle's Schools and Masters of Fence (1892) and Captain Alfred Hutton's The Sword and the Centuries (1901). Hutton describes McBane as a "first class swordsman," and,

Unlike the majority of his class, he was something of a scholar, for he left behind him a work, “The Expert Swordman’s Companion,” which contains a number of wise lessons for both the small and back sword; but perhaps the most interesting part of it is the account he gives of his life when serving in Flanders under the great Duke of Marlborough. There is a rough quaintness in the style of his narrative that adds flavour to the curious anecdotes of fights in which he was engaged.

The British historian J. D. Aylward called McBane's memoir "possibly, the most ingenuous autobiography in the English language."