On Wednesday 26th April 2023

Doug Bell the founder and first Chief Instructor of Whitley Karate club passed away aged 90.

Doug started Karate in his late 30’s and was part of the first Reading team to compete at the UKKW nationals at Crystal Palace.

In 1974 he was awarded his Bkack belt by Tatsuo Suzuki.

In 1974 aged 41 he led the Reading team out at Crystal Palace and at age 15 I fought alongside my Dad.

We were beaten by the legendary Wolverhampton team, Doug fought Hugo Robison, every member of their team came over to shake his hand afterwards.

He started Whitley Karate Club in 1975 as in his words he wanted a fighting club like Wolverhampton and The Hull teams he always admired, as he thought training had gone soft.

The club started in the South Reading Community Centre where we still train to this day!

He wasn’t interested in having 90 people in a line up (although he knew the benefits of basics) and was not interested in making money he just wanted students who were dedicated, could train hard and wanted to fight.

Alongside his good friend Harvey Wiltshire we soon developed a good reputation as fighters.

In 1979 he managed the team in the UKKW nationals as we finished 3rd with Barry Wilkinson in our line up, once again losing to Wolverhampton who won the final.

In 1979 we joined Higashi Karate Kai, Doug retired from training in his early 59’s due to serious knee injuries, but he was always their supporting the Team as they travelled around the UK to competitions.

No one was prouder than him when the team won their first HKK nationals with his 3 sons in the line up.

He saw youngest son Brad represent England at the European Championships and supported everyone’s successes in both Kata and Kumite.

He created a legacy that we are proud to follow, if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have achieved anything like the success we had. We owe it all to him a warrior to the end.

 

RIP dad - written by Steve Bell.