Nigel Soar 1953-2023
Nigel Soar started fencing at Royal Greenwich in 1988, when he brought along members of his Venture Scout unit to join a beginner’s course at the club, he stuck with fencing and was always a stalwart member of the club, fencing all three weapons just for the fun of it, win or lose.
In the thirty-four years Nigel fenced at the club he was always deeply involved with the Junior Section, as well as the club’s outreach work, delivering taster sessions and demonstrations for local councils, schools and other organisations, helping the club to promote fencing to a wider audience in the hope of raising the sports profile.
He was especially keen on delivering taster sessions and courses to Scout groups, with which he was involved all his life, like his father. In the early 2000’s he introduced fencing to one of his Venture Scouts who was in a wheel chair, who in turn got others involved which started the club’s wheelchair fencing section.
For most of the time he was a member of the club he was also a serving police officer with the City of London Police Force, with which he had a variety of roles and adventures, serving as an advanced driver, home beat officer, close protection officer and with the bomb search team among others, so he always had plenty of stories to entertain us with, most of which are never forgotten.
Nigel was a club officer, helper and assistant coach, helping and teaching the juniors on a Monday evening he was always very patient with them. He also acted in the role of Bexley team manager and a president at the fencing competition of the London Youth Games.
He was never particularly interested in competition fencing or trying other clubs, preferring to fence with his old friends and new friends up at Royal Greenwich.
He will be sadly missed.