Understanding that by c.1860 this simple four cut, four parry, two thrust system was regulation in the British Navy and Military perhaps provides some useful context in understanding why there was an increase in the number of sabre treatises being published in Britain in the 1860s-90s, most prominently with Hutton, Waite, Burton and Allanson-Winn. 

Tuohy's surname, of Irish origin, was spelled various ways in writings of the time, making research that much more challenging. He is sometimes recorded as Tohy and Tuohay for example (even Foohey!). Luckily, he left enough of a mark on British naval/military and sporting spheres that details of his life and endeavors were committed to print in many newspapers and journals.

In 1850 we see Tuohy competing at one of the assaults-at-arms alongside renowned fencing master and French Napoleonic Army veteran Leon Gillemand and well-known swordsman John Musgrave Waite. One of the judges being none other than George Chapman, expert fencer and author. 

In 1851 we again find Tuohy performing swordsmanship and also gymnastics at an assault of arms, described as being in his benefit. We can only assume from the wording that finances were not good and his friends in the military and fencing communities had rallied to aid his fortunes. 

In 1854 we see Tuohy again holding an assault-at-arms, with some important key colleagues. Gillemand, as already mentioned, was a famed French fencing instructor who had settled in Britain. Pierre Prevost was equally, or even more, famous. Also from France, he is the foil fencing master that John Musgrave Waite cites as his own teacher. 

The Evening Mail of 1 December 1858 shows that by that date the new Cutlass Exercise under Tuohy was now being rolled out to naval drill instructors and had essentially replaced the old exercise of Angelo, at least in the Royal Navy. This was confirmed by the 1859 publishing of the Cutlass Exercise, according to Tuohy's system:

Tuohy's system came at an opportune time for the naval and military establishment, as it was carrying out reform and renewal after the logistical shambles of the Crimean War.

From the Morning Chronicle of 9 December 1861 we see that by this date Tuohy's system was being taught as regulation among the artillery and cavalry of the British Army:

Saunders's News-Letter - Friday 20 September 1861:

Morning Chronicle - Thursday 17 October 1861:

By 1863 Tuohy's system was already absorbed into cavalry regulation and some people considered it a better (or perhaps more practical for purpose) system for sailors and soldiers than Angelo's method which had preceded it. 

As an aside, at this point in the story it is worth noting (as I have done in many places) the strange anomaly of Sir Richard Francis Burton's 1876 'New Infantry Sword Exercise' (which was never adopted), which devotes a not inconsiderable percentage of its small size criticising the system of Angelo. This is especially amusing when we consider that Tuohy's system had already replaced Angelo's as regulation for the Navy and Army some 13-20 years prior to Burton's publication, but from Burton's text it is clear that he had only looked at a re-print of Angelo's old manual instead of the latest regulation work. This may explain why Burton's manual seems to have been almost completely ignored by contemporaries.

After a long career, Tuohy retired at around the age of 62 from the post of sword instructor at the Royal Naval College. However, this was not the end of his career; he had been for many years an active swimming instructor and that work would carry on for decades. 

In 1882, William Tuohy was around 76 years old and well retired. But we even then find him performing and speaking at an assault at arms, given for his benefit, presumably as a sign of gratitude and to financially assist him in his retirement. 

William Tuohy, as mentioned, was most widely known in his time for swimming. He taught and demonstrated swimming and his whole family was involved in the activity. He taught swimming to some very notable individuals, as set out in this article from the Dundee Evening Telegraph of 18 December 1897:

From London Swimming Professors: Victorian Craftsmen and Aquatic Entrepreneurs. By D Day, 2010:

"Despite these reservations, some ex-army personnel demonstrated that they could become successful swimming professionals and the life course of William Tuohy demonstrates both his own longevity and the evolution of a kinship-based community of practice. In 1841, aged thirty-five, he was a ‘sergeant in the Royal Artillery’ at Woolwich where he was a ‘drill sergeant’ ten years later, although he was also giving swimming exhibitions. In 1850, ‘fancy swimming’ at Holborn included Sergeant Foohey (sic) with his ‘wonderful little boy’, and a year later Sergeant Tuohy was exhibiting with his two children, one two-and-a-half and the other four years old. These ‘little prodigies in the art of natation’ were intro­duced under a canopy of pink muslin covering a cot formed on floating mattresses and towed in by champion swimmers. By 1861, Tuohy was ‘instructor of sword exercise’ in the Royal Artillery College in Gosport, Hampshire, where he had been organising a swimming establishment since 1853. He was at Portsea in 1871, having retired from the army, hence his status as ‘Chelsea pensioner and fencing master’. Aged sixty-three he was living with thirty-six-year-old wife, Sarah, a ‘teacher of dancing’. By 1881, Tuohy had become a ‘swimming and fencing master’ and fifteen-year-old daughter Sarah, was his ‘swimming and fencing master’s assistant’. The whole family was involved in swimming by 1891. Tuohy was now calling himself a ‘swimming instructor’ and Sarah, his wife, was a ‘swimming instructress’, as were daughters Sarah and Mary, aged eighteen. William was living in Portsmouth when he died, aged ninety-five, in 1902, at which point both his daughters were both swimming instructresses in Nottingham."

It is interesting to note that sources in 1902 still considered Tuohy the father of British Army swordsmanship, despite Masiello's method having become regulation, at least for infantry officers, in 1895. 

This obituary sums up many interesting details of Tuohy's life, from the Portsmouth Evening News - Monday 03 March 1902:

There is one final revelation in the tale of William Tuohy, which is revealed to us thanks to an obituary for his son, George Tuohy, in 1932. It transpires that alongside the many famous names William Tuohy tutored in swimming, he had in fact also instructed some of Queen Victoria's sons in swordsmanship. This was no small matter and really shows how embedded into the British naval/military system Tuohy and his method were.

It was mentioned already in passing in the Portsmouth Evening News article of 13 May 1882 above that Tuohy had instructed H. R. H. The Duke of Edinburgh in the sword exercise. This makes sense, given that The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Alfred Ernest Albert, born the fourth child of Queen Victoria, was a Royal Navy officer. Incredibly, he passed the examination in August 1858 and was made a midshipman on HMS Euryalus at only the age of 14, being promoted to Lieutenant in 1863. He must have undergone a period of training in swordsmanship, perhaps repeated, under Tuohy at the Royal Naval College during this period.

I hope that this article will have been of interest and that some people try out Tuohy's system. If you are looking for a military swordsmanship system that is quick to learn and easy to teach, this is it. 

Copyright of Matt Easton, Easton Antique Arms Ltd, 2019