Five-time British Olympian fencer Allan Jay, who won two silver medals at the Rome 1960 Games and a world title in foil, has died aged 91 ©Getty Images

Five-time British Olympian fencer Allan Jay, who won two silver medals at the Rome 1960 Games and a world title in foil, has died aged 91.

Jay won his Olympic medals in individual and team epée in Rome.

He captained the British Olympic fencing team for 15 years, winning more than 20 international tournaments and a total of 170 medals, including seven British Empire and Commonwealth golds, the first of them, in 1950, for Australia.

"This was despite the fact that, in the 1950s, fencing was still an upper-class sport, and antisemitism was rife," the Jewish Chronicle reports.

"Friends said that initially Jay had to fight for entry into clubs, until he proved his success.

"He was very proud of his Jewish heritage.

"He once refused to get on a flight home from a competition because he was asked not to mention he was Jewish when they stopped in an Arab country.

"He sponsored an Israeli place for Israeli soldiers who were far away from home."

Jay won gold at the Maccabiah Games in 1950 and was elected a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1985

Allan Jay and the British Olympic fencing team on the winner's podium in Rome ©Getty Images
Allan Jay and the British Olympic fencing team on the winner's podium in Rome ©Getty Images

He was born on June 30 1931 in London, to Vera and Lionel Goldstone, a furrier.

His father died at the battle of Monte Cassino in 1944.

At the age of 12, Allan went to Buckingham Palace to collect the Military Cross from the King on behalf of his late father.

He attended Cheltenham College where he took up fencing.

Spending his teens in Australia, he then took up fencing to international level.

He returned to Britain to study law at Oxford University and became a solicitor with practices in Bloomsbury and Hampstead, while serving as fencing official with the International Fencing Federation (FIE).

Jay was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1970 New Year's Honours list and remained in the sport as an official with FIE.

He and his wife Carole (née Munk) moved from London to Somerset to be near Allan's greatest friend, Bill Hoskyns, Britain’s other celebrated fencer, who competed in six Olympics and also won a world.

Jay continued to fence weekly at local clubs until well into his eighties, often beating young players.

He is survived by Carole, his wife of 64 years, their daughters Georgina and Felicity, granddaughter Amber and great-granddaughter, Elizabeth.