I would like to on behalf of myself and all Todd Group members convey our most sincere condolences on the passing of Charles Nelson to Mrs Nelson, Carol, Bryan and family.

I write this final tribute to my instructor, mentor and close friend knowing it must be my best and most complete effort as Charlie was the best and the last of the true WWII Military close combat evolutionary pioneers of European methods of self defense.

Charlie’s Beginnings.

Charlie was born March 1st 1915 in Bay Ridge Brooklyn and when his parents separated he was only three years of age. He was sent to an orphanage run by Catholic nuns until age seven at which time he was sent to another orphanage run by Catholic brothers. In the two years he was under the custody of the Christian Brothers he learnt to box, something that he had a natural talent for and found he needed during his tough upbringing.

Charlie next went to live with his father and stepmother and her three children from a previous marriage in Brooklyn but felt unwanted and in the way so he went and found his mother who had three children to her second husband where he stayed for three months before going to stay with his sister and her family in the country.

From his sisters he went back to another institution until he was eleven and then was sent to live on a farm and made to work very hard with no reward. Charlie ran away and met a farmer on the road who took him back to his farm for two days until a state trooper came and returned him to the institution.

He remained in the institution until he was fourteen at which time he was placed on a farm near Lake Placid where he attended school and was made to work day and night on the farm for nothing.

He found out how good he could box once again while at school by easily sorting out the school bully much to the teacher’s surprise.

Charlie ran away again and made his way to another farm where the conditions turned out to be worse and he was made to work without attending school and without any pay. He told the farmer he was leaving and they had a fight in which Charlie broke the farmer’s nose and ran off into the woods with the farmer threatening to get his rifle and shoot him. He then made his way back to a farm he had stayed at some time before and stayed there until he was nineteen.

In 1934 age nineteen Charlie made his way to New York City to join the Marine Corps and was sent to boot camp at Paris Island South Carolina. From Paris Island Charlie was sent to Quantico Virginia and then transferred to the Naval Prison for guard duty.

For Charlie having been brought up in strict institutions and on farms, the rough and tough ways of the Marine Corps especially the prejudices between the Northerners and Southerners or as they called each other “Yankees and Rebels” and the fear the drill sergeants had over the new recruits was just more tough justice that Charlie was well used to.

Charlie in one incident in his barracks with a bully of a Marine stepped him outside where he quickly dealt with him gaining the respect of his fellow Marines as a tough fighter. Charlie had from a very young age despised bullies and hated to see anyone bullied. He once trained a fellow Marine that was the victim of bullying from several quarters, in boxing, running track with him and sparring him putting an end to the bullying and in the process turning out a good fighter with a wicked right hand.

You had to spend eighteen months on guard duty before you could come up for transfer but Charlie requested to join the Marine Corps boxing team and his request was granted.

He was sent back to Quantico Virginia where he fought on the Marine Corps boxing team entertaining the brass on Friday night inter-service boxing contests.

Congressmen and Senators would come to Quantico to watch the Companies and Regiments compete.

It was here that his natural talent for close combat was spotted that later saw him selected for hand to hand combat instructor training and joining the Marine Corps hand to hand combat instructors group. He was fully committed to close combat and would seek out anyone with any interest or expertise and practice not only as part of his service duties but also in any available down time.

It was 1938 and after four years service Charlie got out of the Marine Corps to find little employment opportunities with the depression so after six months reenlisted and was sent to the Brooklyn navy yard followed by Camp Lejeune North Carolina in 1939 where he received more training in weapons, bayonet and hand-to-hand combat as well as instructor duties to the new recruits.

While at Camp Lejeune Charlie met Alice the love of his life and they married. Alice had also been an orphan from a young age when both her parents had died. She was split up from her brother and sister and sent to a farm where she had to look after the blind farmer and his blind daughter and diabetic son. As well as household chores she had to work on the farm and was taken out of school at age twelve.

In the small town where she lived there were no orphanages so she was sent to the local jail along with her brother and sister and it was here that a farmer come along and chose to take her separating her from her brother and sister.

Charlie knew the harsh realities of being an orphan and married Alice before leaving for the Guadalcanal, signing his monthly allowances over to her and his ten thousand dollar allotment insurance should he not make it back. He loved her very much and wanted a better life for her.

In 1941 at the rank of Sergeant he was an instructor in hand-to-hand combat and on the bayonet course to young recruits in preparation for WWII service.

Charlie along with many of the young recruits he had trained landed with the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal in 1942. The jump off point for the Guadalcanal was New Zealand and he was briefly in Auckland in1942 and took much pleasure in describing to me what he could remember of New Zealand. Charlie saw some fierce and bloody combat in the Guadalcanal against the Japanese.

During his service in the Guadalcanal he got malaria, dysentery, an eye infection, ulcers and an infected foot after a sharp cut stem off a plant penetrated his foot.

He was went to the hospital tent as his eye was full of pus and was tagged for evacuation for medical treatment at which he protested against but was told he could not continue in his condition and was evacuated to New Zealand where he spent two weeks in treatment and then returned to San Francisco on Navy transport to recover. He was next posted to Treasure Island Navy base where he successfully applied for transfer to the Brooklyn Navy yard near where his sister lived.

1945 when the war ended Charlie was medically discharged. He brought an old 1930 Chevy from a fellow serviceman for $45.00 and drove to North Carolina to pick up his wife Alice and drove back to New York. There Charlie taught self defense from his apartment and other gyms including the New York Judo Club while working as a salesman and roast cook until he could afford to set up a full time school in the late 1940s on West 104th Street and Broadway.

Charlie’s son Bryan can remember having to fold the beds away and roll out the mat for training at the lower east side apartment in the early days. That apartment had only cold running water.

Charlie was living in the Bronx at this time and heard of a tough man named Herb Kantrowitz who had a ring and training equipment in the back of his store. Charlie and Herb spent a lot of time training together there. Herb Kantrowitz was an early member of Charlie’s school whom also assisted Charlie with developing skills.

Charlie knew all the big names in New York boxing and was well respected as a tough and dirty fighter not to be messed with. Charlie and Herb sparred many of the top fighters of that very tough competitive era and Charlie had even trained with and sparred the legendry Rocky Marciano. In Chinatown as Chinese schools were established Charlie became well known and respected by the Chinese martial arts practitioners who regarded him as the dirtiest of fighters and with hands of stone.

His next school was on West 79th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues.

When Charlie was discharged from the Marine Corps there were only a handful of martial arts schools in New York and he was the first self defense school to be opened in America. He had to develop a complete system based on his military armed and unarmed combat knowledge that was required for the times and for civilian life.

As Charlie put it, the killing skills he had instructed to the Marine Corps were over kill for civilian life but the principles were right but needed to be modified for their new purpose and toned down.

There were no karate or kung fu schools in those days and all arts were classified as judo and Charlie resented that but had no option as the public only recognized the term judo when it come to martial arts or self defense. Kodokan graded black belts would come to Charlie’s school from the New York Judo School to train from him and they described his training as learning how to kill.

Charlie had two children Bryan and Carol and they were very much a big part of his early instructing years in New York and were very proud of their Dad. They would train from him and assist him and in the early days got to see plenty of skeptics made believers at the hands of Charlie.

Charlie was proud of the wicked right hand on his little girl Carol and how tough Bryan was as a youngster learning and assisting with the development of Charlie’s system for civilians.

Bryan was born in 1946 and Carol six years later and were right in the thick along with their mum of those hard early days with Charlie establishing the school.

Carol can remember as a child practicing with Charlie all the time and always asking, Daddy what would you do if I did this and what would you do if I did that and he loved every moment of those times.

Bryan went on to serve in the US Army Aviation division doing three tours of Vietnam. Bryan had cause to use what he had learnt from his Dad on two occasions and was most thankful of having a hand-to-hand combat expert for a dad.

He knocked a Brazilian out cold in a fight while at boarding school and considering he had some times considered having to go with his dad on a Saturday to train as punishment, he quickly realized the value in those lessons.

On another occasion in the service he had a fight with a much bigger Sergeant and fear ensured he recalled what he had learnt as a youngster not only seeing him win the initial encounter but also round two when the Sergeant jumped him while seated in the command center awaiting the consequences of the fight.

Bryan and Carol were gladly the practice assistants along with Mrs. Nelson during this course development phase in the early days.

Charlie’s final school was at 151 West 72nd Street where he instructed until he closed the school in 1998.

Charlie had evaluated a wide range of traditional and competitive styles both in the Marine Corps and back in Civilian Street and had eliminated most of these practices for real life, big city urban violence. He had also ensured his principles were progressive, basics that would stand the test of time and be able to be with minor changes or additions used to combat threats of the future.

Carol can recall Charlie being interviewed for an article and the reporter repeatedly asking if Charlie could break bricks and he took the reporter down to the pavement where he punched the pavement and cracked the sidewalk saying “a brick don’t hit back”, much to the surprise of the reporter.

Charlie was never beaten in combat in the ring or by disrespectful visitors to his school of any style or physical statue. Fortunately he tended to mostly attract the type of person that was a professional, that needed more than was offered in their departmental or service training programs or available via civilian training else where.

Charlie dealt with real life or death violence where guns and blades were the norm and mugging, murder and rape were realities. He would often say murder; rape and mugging are hardly traditional so how do you expect to combat them traditionally?

He also was a control and restraint expert that had common sense solutions to officer’s duty requirements that were as safe and as effective as they get.

Charlie made no apologies for the downright dirty fighting methods he developed and their battle proven record as he was only concerned with victory and never considered defeat an option. He was a pioneer of civilian self-defense and many of the biggest names in martial arts came to him in those early days for his self-defense expertise.

He trained the rich, the famous, police, special agents, bodyguards, military forces personnel including special operations personnel and realist civilians who had run out of options for their personal safety or had been referred to the best first up.

Below Charlie’s school in the early years was a bar named the Clifford and Gilford and many famous Broadway stars socialized there and became students of Charlies including Robert Duval and Billy Squires and his wife.

Bryan remembers this bar in the early days attracting many famous people like Jackie Gleason. Members of the ‘Miss Siagon’ cast took lessons and also members of the cast of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. He developed skills for their specific needs to counter being harassed and the victim of being lifted off the ground by bullies and show offs.

Charlie also had three guest appearances on the Johnny Carson show.

He had even been an opponent of the top boxer Heraldo Rivera in an exhibition bout in New York.

Bryan remembers the many hours waiting around at the school and how impatient he was as a youngster especially between classes but is now most thankful and says he would have liked to continue training later in life if the situation had permitted it.

There are hundreds of accounts of Charlie in his quiet professional manner adjusting characters and convincing the ignorant by showing them hands on how cunning, skilled and deadly he was. Charlie had been called upon to develop many specialist skills for specialist roles over the years and had also been called upon to offer his professional opinions on serious crimes such as the Boston Strangler case.

Charlie had many to the point sayings like, an imagination is worth more than a college education in combat and always be one step ahead of your enemy, one ounce can topple a thousand pounds, only kick to the head when their on the ground and I’d like to see you try that on the tough streets of New York,

He was a walking encyclopedia of self-defense and he worked at his trade 24 7 for his entire life. His mind was always on the subject and he would when you least expected it, test your reactions and ability to put his lessons to use by directing an attack at you from nowhere or as he thought of something, have you assist him while he tried it out.

Which brings me to another of Charlie’s famous sayings. “Your life is the most important trophy you will fight for not some tin cup at a tournament. A black belt is no real insurance against knife or a gun. Use your brains to outsmart your enemy, don’t get them rattled for no reason.”

Charles Nelson Military Hand-To-Hand

Combat Record of Service

Charles Nelson
Service Number 244353
Ten years six months service in the USMC.
Medical discharge 1945 at the rank of Platoon Sergeant.

Selected for the hand-to-hand combat instructing team.

USMC hand-to-hand combat instructor qualified.

Instructed armed and unarmed combat to the recruits preparing for WWII

His instructors included Sergeant Patrick Kelly and Lt. Col. A. J. D. Biddle.

Col Biddle was a Hand-to-Hand Combat instructor to the USMC and FBI with experience from British Military Unarmed Combat schools and service in China and Japan.

Sergeant Kelly was a former member of the Shanghai Municipal Police Force instructor qualified by both Fairbairn and the legendry Dermot ‘Pat’ O’Neill. O’Neill went on to instruct U.S. and Canadian Special Forces and the British SAS in close combat.

Boxed on the USMC boxing team as a lightweight.

Training partners included Sergeant Patrick Kelly and John Styers.

He considered Sergeant Kelly to be one of the best at killing, maiming or crippling his enemy and Pat O’Neill to be the unsung hero of close combat instruction. He never personally trained from Fairbairn or O’Neill but from Kelly and Biddle learnt their systems on exponent and instructors courses going on to be an expert instructor himself.

Charles Nelson landed with the first Marine Division on the Guadalcanal 1942 where he was involved in some of the most deadly combat.

The last time he saw Sergeant Kelly his instructor and training partner was from some distance on Guadalcanal moving with his outfit in the opposite direction to Charlie’s.

They waved to each other and never saw each other again but Charlie never forgot the training Sergeant Kelly had given him.

Charles Nelson was a qualified military hand-to-hand instructor of the methods of the great evolutionary expert pioneers Fairbairn, O’Neill, Biddle, Kelly and John Styers.

Charles Nelson rose to the highest possible status after WWII over the next fifty years continuing with his pursuit of excellence in close combat and self-defence.

He will be dearly missed and never forgotten and I know he will take his rightful place in the final resting place for Brave Soldiers.

Semper Fidelis the US Marine Corps Motto meaning always faithful is something that the Charles Nelson lived by.

We remember before you O Lord,
And entrust to your keeping those who in time of war have served in defence of justice and of freedom.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength
They shall walk and not faint
They shall grow, not old as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
We will remember them
We now leave our brother in service in God’s merciful care
And commend those who mourn to his compassion