8vo. 84pp. First edition, original publisher’s khaki cloth boards lettered black. Cocked, rubbed and marked, lightly toned throughout. Captain Sydney Temple Leopold McLaglen (1884 - 1951) was an imposter, chancer, fraudster, and by all accounts terrible at Jiu Jitsu. McLaglen made many spurious claims over the course of his life, frequently getting himself run out of town, and finally, America. He published several books and training manuals on various forms of close combat in the years following the First World War. McLaglen’s claim of Jiu Jitsu Champion was based on a 1907 ‘fight’ held in British Columbia against a Japanese fighter going by ‘Kanada’, here summarised by a local reporter: For two hours the spectators saw nothing but Kanada crouching on the mat with McLaglen on top of him and there was little, if any,Jiu Jitsu to the performance. It was apparent to everyone that McLaglen’s knowledge of the game could be covered with a pinhead. Even without this damning report of McLaglen, Jiu Jitsu had neither an international governing body nor associated competition at the time of the match. Ever unsatisfied, McLaglen went on to forge a backstory of war hero, King’s bodyguard, Intelligence agent, soldier of fortune – while posing as his successful boxer (and Academy Award winning) brother Victor – while working as doorman in Milwaukee. Chased out of town in disgrace, McLaglen then briefly appeared as part of a Jujitsu touring act with an entirely unconvinced strongman, but his real success came with the increasing militarisation in advance of the First World War. By 1913 he was touring India, China, the Philippine Islands, Australia and New Zealand, as an instructor demonstrating his ‘version’ of jujitsu and The McLaglen Bayonet System which was notable for its extreme close-quarters techniques such as trips, disarms and throws. He published The McLaglen System of Bayonet Fighting in 1915. His public claims of victories also grew so wild as to include beating President Roosevelt’s private Jiujitsu instructor, though there is no evidence the two ever met. McLaglen was eventually barred from the US on charges of extortion, after allegedly ‘masterminding’ a plot to assassinate 24 ‘Hollywood Jews’, as part of the American Nazi movement. He was only caught because he attempted to extort his employer, millionaire sportsman Philip Chancellor. He died in relative obscurity in 1951.