Bill Underwood

William 'Bill' Underwood

Born in Manchester in 1895 and raised in Liverpool

Learned Jiu Jitsu as a 12 year old boy from Japanese masters

Yoko Tani and Tara Maki whilst working as a call boy at a theatre.

Emigrated to Canada with his family in 1910

Served in the First World War where he used his training to escape his German captors.

During the Second World War developed COMBATO, an adapted form of unarmed combat drawn from his Jiu Jitsu training and taught it to Allied special units.

After the war further modified and renamed the system to DEFENDO for less than lethal applications and taught Canadian

U.S and U.K Law Enforcement including the Manchester Police (GMP) in 1965.