Wessex League and Albion Cup are run by a committee of HEMA practitioners that come from a wide range of clubs across the UK. The core team includes our Committee that oversees all of our activities and several dedicated volunteers who support on particular specialist areas. Team members are sometimes involved in either Wessex, Albion or both.
Each year, we are joined by representatives from our Host Clubs who join the committee for the year they are hosting, and participate in planning and running the both the events they host and the other Wessex League events for the year.
Core Team
Jamie MacIver (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League
Jamie has been involved in running the Wessex League since 2018, first as a Host Club rep and then from 2019 as part of the core committee. He has also competed every year in Wessex League and Albion Cup since they started.
Jamie has been doing HEMA since 2014, focusing on the longsword by Philippo Vadi. He teaches at the London Historical Fencing Club where he was one of the founding members, as well as regularly at national and international events. He also competes regularly at international competitions, including Dutch Lions Cup, Swordfish, and the European Games.
Emilia Skirmuntt (She/Her)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Emilia joined both the Wessex League and Albion Cup committees and in 2019, and has competed every year since its inception.
Emilia is the head instructor for the Oxford chapter of The School of the Sword. She has trained how to hit people with swords and other objects for the last 20 years. During that time she has studied multiple weapons, systems, and in multiple different clubs, starting in Poland and then moving to London and Oxford. She has won medals in both women as well as open competitions both in the UK and abroad, fighting with longsword, rapier, rapier and dagger, saber, sidesword, and sidesword and buckler. She was also voted best technical fencer of By the Sword 2019. Emilia travelled around Europe leading workshops and seminars and was one of the representatives for the UK and Ireland HEMA team in the European Games taking place in Minsk in 2019.
Jon Middleton (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Jonathan Middleton is one of the founders of the Wessex League and has seen it grow from its inception in 2017 to a thriving fixture of the UK HEMA scene. He loves the community spirit that drives the Wessex events – collaboration and mutual support, alongside competition which is fierce, but honest and good hearted. Jon has been practicing HEMA since 2009, first in Exeter with IDC, then in London where he trained with various clubs and was a founding member of Waterloo Sparring Group. He now teaches at Wivenhoe HEMA, a club he started in 2021 after moving back to his native Essex
Nick Laing (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Nick, begrudgingly dubbed as the Wessex King of Safety due to his firm belief that a liberal application of thermoplastic makes everything better when it comes to sword points, has been studying the blade for ten years. For the majority of this vast stretch of time, Nick has been the cofounder and lead instructor of Cardiff’s Edel Fencing Academy, a queer run factory for the creation of eager and delightful tournament fencers that focuses on a strange combination of the teachings of Joachim Meyer and modern fencing. Nick has been competing in the Wessex League since its inception, has been involved in the organisation of events since 2018 and has yet to miss a leg… he thinks.(edited)
Pat Lawton (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Patrick joined the first the Albion then Wessex teams in 2022. He has been fencing since 2018. He is one of the organisers of London HEMA Open and has spoken internationally on the subject of tournament organisation. He fences primarily Fiore’s Longsword, and with experience across a variety of disciplines.
Pedro San Miguel
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Pedro San Miguel is fencer based in the UK. He participated in the very first Wessex League event, and has since competed in every iteration, earning 7 league championships and numerous individual event wins across 3 weapons. In 2021 he was invited to join the organising committee, where he continues to work with his colleagues and fellow competitors on making The Wessex League the leading HEMA sporting league in the UK and beyond.
Perth Ophaswongse
Marketing Manager
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Perth runs the Wessex & Albion facebook pages and keeps the world fed with regular updates about what we’re doing. He spends most events going form piste to piste taking photos to prove that swords look as cool as they feel. As a result, no photo exists of Perth as he is incapable of walking to the other side of the camera.