Thomas H. Monstery was born on April 21, 1824, in Copenhagen, Denmark. At age twelve he joined the Danish navy, and he later completed his military training at the Royal Military Institute of Gymnastics and Arms in Copenhagen. He went on to study at the Central Institute of Physical Culture in Stockholm, Sweden, from which he graduated a master of arms. As a soldier he fought under twelve flags in Europe and the Americas, took part in numerous revolutions, ascended to the rank of colonel, and participated in more than fifty duels with the sword, knife, and pistol. After immigrating to the United States, he embarked on a distinguished career as an instructor of fencing and pugilism, opening schools in Baltimore, Berkeley, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, and became recognized as one of the greatest fencing masters in America. During this time, he authored a number of articles on self-defense, republished under the title Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies: A Nineteenth-Century Treatise on Boxing, Kicking, Grappling, and Fencing with the Cane and Quarterstaff (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2015).
