Master Bob Johnson

 

Bob Johnson performing a technique on Roger Le Butt, Bob Lodge watching, 1968

 

Robert Henry Johnson was born 31st August 1930, in Leicester, England. It is believed his grandfather was at one time a police commissioner or chief of police in Northern India and Bob spent several years living there with him. In his youth Bob may have also started to study Karate before at the age of 18 he joined the Royal Military Police. 1949, he was posted to Hong Kong, stationed at the Aberdeen Barracks. This was also the year that the Communist party took over China and outlawed martial arts and so consequently many Kung Fu masters who had enjoyed revered positions now escaped persecution by escaping China via Hong Kong.

Bob stated he was spurred into taking up Kung Fu after seeing a street fight in Hong Kong. Master Wong Cheung had been attacked, but easily and skilfully dealt with his attackers. Bob introduced himself to Master Wong and persuaded him to teach him this strange martial arts called Black Tiger Kung Fu. Master Wong taught Bob on a one to one basis at his gym by the railway sidings at Mon Kok station in Hong Kong. Due to Bob’s prowess as a fighter, he was invited into a special enclave of Kung Fu masters. This enclave of Masters, would meet and exchange ideas from there styles for practical fighting purposes. These styles included Black Tiger, White Tiger, Ripping Tiger, Bagua, Wing Chun and Hsing I.

While in Hong Kong, Bob bumped into a friend who was from his home town back in England. Pete lived in the next street from Bob back in Leicester. Pete McNulty was a solo SAS observations operative who had to flee Korea as his cover had been blown. He was sent to Hong Kong as an adviser to the Civil Police.
At this time it was unheard of for Whites / Europeans to be accepted into any Kung Fu schools and taught. The only way that Bob and Pete gained access was through their Police and Military Chinese contacts and the friendships they had built up with these people. (some of Pete McNulty’s  training venues in Hong Kong were at Sam Shui Po School of Chinese Boxing, 341 Main Street, Yuen Long, Kowloon, and at Tai Koon Mansion, 6th Floor, No 7 Woosung Street, Yaumiti, Kowloon.) Bobs main kwoon was a small place somewhere on Maidstone Road and at the Mon Kok sidings.

On many occasions Bob would have his abilities tested in his role a Military Police Officer performing his duties. Another time he had to fight for his life along when he was caught in the middle of a fight between two rival gangs on the ferry crossing the harbour. It is also rumoured that he tested himself by entering No-holds barred full contact fights with other martial artists in Hong Kong. In 1953, Bob was awarded his Master’s certificate from the Fighter’s enclave.
 
It is not clear if Bob was introduced to the knowledge of the Sikh fighting arts through possibly spending time with his grandfather in India or if he first came across it when he was serving in Hong Kong working with the local police there. The ruling British relied heavily on the Sikh community due to their honour and unswayable loyalty to make up the majority of the police force during those colonial years. It is very possible that Bobs love of the martial arts combined with his close connection to the Hong Kong Sikh police fraternity who would have worked closely with the military police at that time could have been Bob`s first inroad to the Sikh arts.
(Khalsa Diwan Sikh Temple is a gurdwara in the Wan Chai District of Hong Kong, on the junction of Queen's Road East and Stubbs Road, Hong Kong Island. This Gurdwara functions as its role of providing religious, social, practical and cohesive support to generations of Sikhs in Hong Kong and continue to do so. It is also the center of Sikh community activities. The need for a proper Gurdwara was evident in the early days of Hong Kong and the government allocated land at Happy Valley for building the Gurdwara. Sikh Soldiers of the British Army helped build the Gurdwara in 1901.)

Before Bob returned to England, he also served time in Korea during the Korean war. After which we believe he left the forces to spend time in Northern India and Bombay learning the very secretive Sikh martial arts of Muka Bazi Binot from a Sikh priest. Back in Leicester, Bob continued his study at the Sikh martial arts at their temple in New Walk, (Bob continued to train and teach at the Sikh temple until some time in the early 1990’s).

He was also studying Karate again under Master Mitzatani (8th Dan and head of the Japanese Karate Federation), and by the mid 1950’s was a 3rd Dan. At this time, Bob would initially teach Karate to his students, and once they had reached their 1st Dan Black belt, he would then teach them Kung Fu.

Bob was travelling a lot, refining his skills and abilities. In 1963, he and his family moved to New Zealand. While in New Zealand Bob lived in a suburb of Wellington called Brooklyn. As usual Bob got into several fights proving his system to any and all challengers. One of these challengers was a man called Bill Young. Bill was the first person we know of who forced Bob to a draw and after this altercation they gained a healthy martial respect for each other. Bill Young had arrived in New Zealand in 1956 from China. Bill had studied Eagle Claw Kung Fu in China from his family and continued his training after settling in New Zealand. With aid of other local Chinese settlers and also some of the sailors (some of whom were masters) from the many Chinese and Japanese boats that docked, Bill had managed to learn other techniques and build up a group of martial artists to study with.

While in New Zealand, Bob started to teach and build up a club which he ran from a large shed in his back garden. It is believed that he was also sudying himself while there, expanding his skills and knowledge. When Bob returned to England in 1964, he advised his most senior student, Stan Chun to continue his studies of Kung Fu under another local Master, Bill Young who he respected after their challenge match.

An incident and quote that Stan will always remember of Bob was when Bob was just about to break some concrete blocks, a small insect crawled across the block.
 “Eee  look at that tiny insect” Bob almost cooed and then gently brushed it off the block. “ Life is precious,” he then said.
“You are a strange one,” Stan replied. “ On one hand you are telling me to kill and rip people apart and here you are protecting an insignificant bug, I don’t understand you.”
Bob replied gently back, “Stan, if I were not hard I would not be alive….If I were not gentle I would not deserve to be alive” This shows a deeper more philosophical side that Bob would usually hide from most people.

It was after his return from New Zealand that Bob finally moved away from the Karate and focused exclusively on teaching Kung Fu to all his students.In these early days, Kung Fu was not yet widely known to the general public who considered martial arts to be either Karate or Judo. Because to this, Bob decided he would use the name of Chinese Karate to let the general public know what he was about. When he came back from New Zealand in 1964 he designed a new badge for  his Tai Gik Koon association. At the top, it had “Chinese Karate Association” and at the bottom “Hong Kong   New Zealand”. The reference to Hong Kong and New Zealand, is to do with where Bob Johnson’s had studied Kung Fu.

All that knew Bob stated that he was a proud, at times blunt, uncompromising, arrogant and confrontational man that, gave him the character traits to be the fighter when required. But, Bob was also a moral person with integrity, and would test all new prospective students before imparting his techniques of Kung Fu. He wanted to be sure they were of good character, and was very concerned about his system falling into the wrong hands of an immoral person.

From the early 1960’s, Bob started to expand, and taught at various locations around Leicestershire. One of these venues was outside in Bradgate Park, and classes were held regardless of weather conditions. As the sixties progressed, Bob started to build a hardcore of very good instructors (Pete Bradshaw, Pete McNulty, Roger Le Butt, Chris Hubbard and Tom Carey), who had opened up their own clubs in the surrounding areas. As these clubs continued to grow and expand to other locations, Bob set up his Tai Gik Koon association. At this time in the UK, martial arts were still in its infancy and all the main instructors knew each other and would visit and train at each others clubs. From the late 1960’s Bob and Tom Carey formed an alliance and co operated closely with each other in an attempt to stop disreputable instructors deceiving the public.

Although Bob had a thriving martial arts association he would still keep down a full time job as well as teaching Kung Fu and would also have periods working the doors on various clubs. Door work was always a way of pressure testing his techniques in real situations. Another way Bob used to pressure test his system was to issue challenges to other clubs and styles. Many took up these challenges through the years which Bob or one of his top instructors would always defeat all challengers upholding the honour of the club.

In 1972, Bob initiated the setting up of the British Chinese Boxing Board of Control as a governing body to police the slowly growing number of martial arts clubs, ensuring only true teachers were opening clubs. At this time Bob had thirty three clubs around the country in his Tai Gik Koon association. In early 1973, Bob was getting business advice off an associate who funded a three week trip to Hong Kong. Bob took this associate to Hong Kong with him, and introduced him to some of his friends and past teachers. On his return, he told Roger Le Butt that it had been a mutial exchange where Bob was taught some things and he taught some of the other arts he had learnt since. Shortly afterwards, in 1973, he decided to emigrate to New Zealand, leaving his assistants to run the clubs in his absence. While In New Zealand Bob again taught his system and met up with old friends Bill Young and Stan Chun. Bill had now built up a large association in Wellington called the Chinese Martial Arts Association and asked Bob to come down from time to time and teach.

While Bob was away, Pete McNulty, Roger Le Butt and Chris Hubbard were now developing their own aspects of the style and expanding on what Bob did, setting up their own schools. It was then that Kung Fu really started to take off with the release of Bruce Lee’s films and the Kung Fu TV series with David Carradine. Due to this boom in Kung Fu, Pete, Chris, Roger (of Tai Gik Koon), and several other instructors from around the country (including Chee Soo, Baron Omidi, Lajos Jakab) decided to set up the British Kung Fu Council which several years later in 1980, changed its name to the British Council for Chinese Martial Arts (BCCMA).

In 1974 Bob returned back to England after his family had become homesick and had pleaded with him to return. Back home, Bob took back over the reins of his clubs which surprised some of his instructors who hadn’t expected him to return. Bob wasn’t pleased at some of the changes that had been made and put them straight in his own way. Due to this some of these people started to distance themselves from regular contact with Bob. With the Kung Fu craze now sweeping across Britain, Bob started to get a lot more exposure in the press and television. Bob and his senior instructors were involved in two television programs. One was the David Frost show called "In The Street Where You Live", and the other was for the local Midlands station, ATV. These two shows generated a huge response in people wish to learn from Bob and his instructors.

Approximately  1977, Bob decided to break ties with the British Kung Fu Council, stating that he wasn’t happy with their organisation, its egos and the fact it didn’t operate a proportional representation in its voting system (as Bob had by far the greatest number of members and resented being reduced to having the same say in any votes as an instructor who’s organisation had only a few members.), and Bob didn’t like being told what to do by people whom he considered inferior martial artists.

The White Tiger system that Bob taught was a blend of all the various styles he had experienced to produce a fast and effective self-defence and fighting art. He wanted a system like he encountered in the fighters enclave in Hong Kong. Some people wanted a more traditional style and so missed called Bob for creating his unique hybrid system. Bob used to say `We are not Chinese, Japanese or Indian, we sit on chairs not on the floor and so we don’t use the long low stances for self-defence and fighting. Real fighting is about doing what is natural, and enhancing your normal body movements`.

During the mid 1960’ to early 1970’s many now prominent martial artists started their careers training under Master Bob Johnson. Derek Frearson started with Bob, then moved on until he settled with Seven Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Wing Chun and is a founding member of the BCCMA. Bob Weatherall started his Kung Fu career with Bob Johnson and Pete Bradshaw before later moving on to train with Master Luk Chi Fu in White Crane. Bob Weatherall latter formed his Wha Duc Lung association, and has been the secretary of the BCCMA for a many number of years.

Towards the late 1980’s Bob started to take a back seat after he developed diabetes and then gout. He still oversaw the association turning up at his students various lessons from time to time. Bob’s main instructor, who was running the majority of his classes was Pete Thorn. Pete had started in the late 1960’s and retired in the early 1980’s, but Bob had persuaded Pete to come back out of retirement to ensure that while he was taking a back seat, the system stayed true. Pete would turn up at classes with a lever arch file, which contained the various tiger forms, and a Muki Bazi Binot form (the forms are of twenty complex techniques) plus information on Pakua and Dim Mak techniques. All this information had been written down in the early 1970’s so that his system stayed true and wouldn’t be corrupted.

Towards the later 80s and early 90s Bob’s declining health made him aware of his own mortality, during this period he became much more open, creating many more forms sharing all that he had learned to ensure that all his knowledge was passed on to his most trusted instructors of the time.
Bob’s unexpected death came on the 1st August in 1994.

Pete Thorn continued to teach until he again retired in 1995, but happily returned to teaching Bobs original style again in 2008.