William Ewart Fairbairn, 1885 – 1960 He was a British soldier, police officer and exponent of hand-to-hand combat method, for the Shanghai Police between the world wars, and allied special forces in World War II. He developed his own fighting system known as Defendu, as well as other weapons tactics. Notably, this included innovative pistol shooting techniques and the development of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife. Fairbairn served with the Royal Marine Light Infantry starting in 1901, and jo