Henry Ellis Interview

I was born in Yorkshire, in May 1936 in a little coal mining village called Brampton, near Rotherham. A place where you had to fight your way to and from school each day.

When did you begin your study of Aikido?

It was in 1957, I was studying Judo and Karate at the Abbe School of Budo at the "Hut" in Hillingdon, Middlesex. My Direct teacher was Mr Ken Williams, who was 3rd Dan (3rd degree black belt) Judo, and we were all students of Kenshiro Abbe Sensei, 8th Dan Judo, 6th Dan Aikido, 5th Dan Karate and 5th Dan Kendo. At this time no-one in the United Kingdom had heard of Aikido. Abbe Sensei told Mr Ken Willams that we had received a letter from O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, stating that all instructors outside of Japan now had permission to teach Aikido to anyone who wished to learn. Mr Williams was his first student and he selected a hardcore of Judo students to study Aikido - this is when I started.

Abbe Sensi made Mr Willams National Coach for Aikido and I became Mr Willams' assistant, a post which I held for approximately 15 years. Abbe Sensei and Williams Sensei then bought eight of us special students up to 1st Dan, the only Dan grades in Great Britain at that time, and all in one dojo (place or training)! All the Dan grades were hard training and strong with no "bandage men" amongst them. Sunday morning practice was for Dan grades only and Williams Sensi would lock all the doors to the Dojo - it was then the serious practice started, with real fighting. He would allow the younger black belts grades to try to prove themselfs against him - with out success, I might add. It was at the time that Sensi started to vist other dojos to introduce Aikido.