Jim Shortt - Baron of Castleshort

Discussion in 'Ju Jitsu' started by RAbid Hamster, Oct 28, 2008.

  1. RAbid Hamster

    RAbid Hamster Herr Trubelmacher

    Guys
    not sure if you are familiar with the term 'Walt' - someone who pretends to be something they are not (walter mitty) - but on the British armed forces forum ARRSE...they have been investigating a bloke who (amongst a <snip> load of other things) claims to be "a practitioner of a specific form of Jiu-Jitsu - Ryoi Shintô Ryû - allegedly handed down from teacher to student in a continuous chain down the centuries".
    Thread on their wiki here
    Wondered if you had any input you'd like passed on.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 29, 2008
  2. Bodhi Surfer

    Bodhi Surfer Valued Member

    Ha Ha. How strange. I remember reading about this guy and the Close combat team in Karate and Oriental Arts (KOA) a magazine that used to be published by Paul Crompton back in the late 70's.
     
  3. adouglasmhor

    adouglasmhor Not an Objectivist

    He appears to be a Shodan in a JJJ style right enough, but bums this up to GM proportions, he has pretended to have some relationship with the Booj, but he hasn't. And he was at the founding meeting of a GB savate council but he makes out he was a founder of it. Apparently he was a good Shodan but like any walt he is not happy with what he has done and has to exaggerate. He wasn't a Para not in the SAS(V) or reg. But you can't blame him for being a walt. I pretended to be a soldier for years. Living in the barracks, drawing pay, going on courses, doing guard duties, going on tour to NI, going on exercise, passing fitness tests etc. Sometimes I fooled even me ;)
     
  4. Kogusoku

    Kogusoku 髭また伸びた! Supporter

    This very topic was on e-budo a few weeks back on the jujutsu section. News gets around.
     
  5. RAbid Hamster

    RAbid Hamster Herr Trubelmacher

    the reason it kicked off big style is the good 'baron' threatened the denizens of ARRSE with m'learned friends after he was mocked. These threats seem to have worked in the past ... but not this time! The membership of ARRSE may spend its entire time fighting with itself but when external threats appear they turn quite nasty. They deconstructed the 'baron's' CV to prove he's a 'lying ****'.
    Shortt has been unable to provide any information to back up his outrageous claims and is currently being hailed as the King of the Walts.
     
  6. aikiMac

    aikiMac aikido + boxing = very good Moderator Supporter

    Heh heh heh -- so he has achieved greatness in something after all! :)
     
  7. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

    Ouch - that makes you cringe!

    I used to have a colleague commissioned onto the TA B list who would wear rank tabs without the CCF designation and change his beret according to where he was (for example wearing a rifles beret to a competition run by seven rifles even though his own unit had a different badge, and wearing his para beret to visit 2 Sqn of the RAF Regiment). Even though I'm commissioned into a different service (RAFVR(T)) - it was embarrassing to be seen with him.

    Sadly although I'd say that the vast majority of people who serve in the reserve forces with regard to cadets are proud of what they are doing, such a career always attracts a significantly small percentage of walts - and it only takes one to taint the work and memory of all the normal staff who are not pretending to be anything. Rather like martial arts.
     
  8. Kogusoku

    Kogusoku 髭また伸びた! Supporter

    Rumbled

    Looks like Shortt has been rumbled.

    Fake SAS man given Cabinet security job

    :rolleyes:

    I remember reading into his budo exploits when I returned to the UK from Japan after living there and found them a bit off kilter (i.e. not the norm with koryu bujutsu as Shortt's Ryoi Shinto-ryu was claimed to be.) Two years ago, I did a bit of digging. What I found, I put on e-budo.
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2009
  9. kouryuu

    kouryuu Kouryuu

    In the very early 80s he was involved with Brian McCarthy of the Bujinkan Brian Dojo, they had something called the Combat Training Team together with Bo Munthe, they got rid of him fairly quickly as he was a total idiot and didn't know squat, that also is where he thinks he has a connection to the Bujinkan, he was never a paid up member, he will probably now say he has a connection to the Genbukan as there is a Dojo in Malta that is working with him and some of the students have joined his Bodyguard organisation, the IPA
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2009
  10. Kogusoku

    Kogusoku 髭また伸びた! Supporter

    I was asked by several individuals a few years ago to do some research on RSR (Shortt & non-Shortt related), due to my regular commutation to Japan and my involvement with koryu to some extent.

    None of the names of prior instructors or historical links provided by Shortt's websites & Shortt's own book on RSR added up. That, linked up with Shortt's dodgy menjo on the websites proved that something was wrong with the picture. (Claiming to be 3rd Dan in Tenjin Shinyo-ryu is one of them, since this ryuha does not use the modern dan-i system. It still uses the pre-Meiji era menkyo system.)

    There were some photographs posted on his website last year of Shortt training in Japan in one of the suburbs of Tokyo and ironically it is the same dojo where one of the koryu jujutsu ryuha I train in uses on a regular basis. The koryu community on a whole is very tight, everyone knows which ryuha are around and who trains in them. There is definately no RSR in the Tokyo area whatsoever.

    I figured that if he was lying about one thing in his past, there is a possibility he has been lying about others.

    I bounced some of Shortt's military background photos off of a former Sgt.Maj in the Royal Marine Commandos (Formerly of 40 & 45 commando) He picked up on a lot of discrepencies, particularly uniformal ones. (e.g. Marines & British Army soldiers in the late 1970's wore khaki trousers and DPM smock. Shortt is regularly pictured wearing all DPM, which was not regulation.) There were other discrepencies which were met with expletives.

    Basically, the consensus was not good.

    I didn't mention my findings about the military background discrepencies on e-budo, since I didn't think it was really germaine to the subject.
     
  11. ShinobiMLT

    ShinobiMLT New Member

    Correction


    Dear Mr Smithers,

    I hope you are well and in good health. May I please inform you that Genbukan Malta has no affiliation with IBA or Ryoi Shinto Ryu Jujutsu directed by Mr Shortt.

    One of my students is indeed a member of IBA, but he has been a member since both IBA and Ryoi Shinto Ryu Jujutsu were run and instructed by the Bujinkan Dojo in Malta, under supervision of Jim Shortt himself.

    I have never been a member of any of JIm Shortt's organisations whether it is IBA or Ryoi Shinto Ryu. I did assist the company that represents IBA in Malta for a few weeks in order to assist my student. That said, this should clear the matter.


    Sincerely Yours,
    Robert Spiteri
    Genbukan Enshin Dojo
    Malta.
     
  12. opnek

    opnek New Member

    Dear Mr. Spiteri,
    For your information & others IBA courses & Ryoi Shinto Ryu were run & instructed at the Bujinkan Dojo BUT when the truth became known everything related to Mr. Shortt IBA & Ryoi Shinto Ryu had stopped being taught at the Bujinkan Dojo.
    Finally is it true that you instructed D.A.R.T. courses for the IBA under the supervision of Mr. Shortt?
     
  13. swatsusa

    swatsusa New Member

    Has there been any response from Shortt? What does he have to say?
     
  14. adouglasmhor

    adouglasmhor Not an Objectivist

    He is still rolling along unabated he just last month taught a course in the Ukraine to part some of the gullible from their cash. I doubt he will ever teach in the UK or Republic of Ireland again though.

    Still involved with the Russian Summer ball fake and commemorative medals at the ready. http://www.russiansummerball.com/index.php?page=11

     
  15. Kogusoku

    Kogusoku 髭また伸びた! Supporter

    He is even hoodwinking the Japanese with BG courses and fake koryu.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4YK-vXwrPc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4YK-vXwrPc[/ame]


    What colour was the boathouse at Hereford?
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2011
  16. adouglasmhor

    adouglasmhor Not an Objectivist

    Do you mean the canoe club? Because the old Stirling lines wasn't on the river and even an old scaleyback knows that.
     
  17. Aegis

    Aegis River Guardian Admin Supporter

    Just a little note to anyone interested in this thread:

    I've received a "Cease and Desist" from Jim Shortt's lawyer asking me to close this thread. As I've read through the ARRSE page and their description of the last time he threatened to sue someone (i.e. them), I'm confident enough to allow this thread to keep going, however I would ask each of you who have posted or are considering posting in this thread to double check your facts before submitting your thoughts to the site.

    Let me know by PM or here if you have any questions.
     
  18. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    I would have thought that the last thing Shortt needs is people actually checking facts.

    Shortt has made many claims that have been challenged - it is upon him to prove his claims not silence critics with bogus lawsuits. Face it he at best grossly exaggerated his claims and at worst....well we all know the worst. Perhaps if Mr Shortt was able to PROVE his claims the campaigns would vanish....I wonder why that was a route he chose to ignore? *

    *Please note this is the opinion of an independent contributor to a public forum in the name of free speech. Whilst the are ToS in place, this post violates none of them and as it is posted from Canada I doubt that it would be covered under a UK cease and desist.
     
  19. Aegis

    Aegis River Guardian Admin Supporter

    Bizarrely it was a Nebraska Cease and Desist request, which would certainly indicate that there are a few issues with the research side of the order ;)

    I really have no idea why a UK/Irish citizen would try to lodge a Cease and Desist order against a UK website staffed by UK citizens in a Nebraska court, but if he wants to waste his money on US lawyers, he's more than welcome to!
     
  20. Kogusoku

    Kogusoku 髭また伸びた! Supporter

    That was a reference to the film, Ronin with Robert Deniro......

    I have a bunch of copies of his certifications. Most are in English, apart from one in Japanese, which is a menjo for sandan in the Bujinkan. Peter King was once (Unknown if he still is) a student of Shortt's Ryoi Shinto-ryu. (King was also a member of Tenjin Shinyo-ryu under Kubota Toshihiro.)

    It is possible to surmise that the liason between Shortt & the Bujinkan was Peter King, unless was another link perhaps?
     

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