Sarah Mayer


Sarah Winifred Benedict Mayer , was an English actor and judoka. She was the first non-Japanese woman to obtain a blackbelt in judo.

Biography

Mayer was born as Sarah Winifred Benedict Tapping near Battersea Park in London on October 16, 1896. Her father, Alfred Benedict Tapping was an actor and her mother, Alice Amelia Fishwick was an actress. The couple had three children, of which Mayer was the eldest.
Mayer went into acting herself in 1906, joining her parent's productions, and by 1914 she was performing in the West End in Harley Granville-Barker's interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She enrolled in the Academy of Dramatic Art soon after. Mayer first trained in judo by Gunji Koizumi at the Budokwai in the 1920s.
She married twice, first to timber merchant, Sills Keith Gibbons on January 29, 1919, and then to barrister Robert John Mayer on July 17, 1924. She went travelling throughout 1934, initially to India and then east through China and Tibet to reach Japan. There she trained with the local police force, and took an interest in judo. She trained with Ichiro Hatta and reached first kyū. She was even presented first dan by Prince Nashimoto before returning home. In doing so, she became the first non-Japanese woman to obtain a black belt on February 23, 1935.
After her trip, her second marriage broke down and they divorced shortly after. Mayer met Warwick Parker Ovington, an RAF officer, after the war and in 1951 she took his surname. They lived together in Barton under Needwood, Staffordshire until her death, caused by alcohol dependence on March 19, 1957.