Matt has been involved with historical European martial arts (HEMA) since 1997 and has been teaching internationally since 2000, establishing Schola Gladiatoria in 2001. 

With Lucy Easton, Matt runs FightCamp, one of the biggest annual European HEMA events and by far the biggest in the UK. He is a founding member of the Historical European Martial Arts Coalition (HEMAC), has been qualified under the British Federation for Historical Swordplay (BFHS) and is recognised and insured by the British Combat Association (BCA).

Matt's historical fencing career started in 1997 (after a few years of modern fencing and Asian martial arts) as a student of The Company of Maisters, later joining The Exiles Company of Medieval Martial Artists, of which he became co-director. During this time he began his study of Fiore dei Liberi's treatises, assisting his Italian friend, Eleonora Litta Modignani Picozzi, to produce the first English translation of the Getty version of Fiore's treatise 'Il Fior di Battaglia'. 

Matt’s formal educational background is a BA(hons) in Medieval Archaeology and History from University College London (UCL) in 2000, writing his final dissertation on the development of 13th and 14th century armour. He subsequently worked for a short time as a field archaeologist and later as Head of Arms & Armour at a London antique auction house.

Since 2000, Matt has taught martial arts at events in the UK, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and USA. Matt formally added British military sabre to his repertoire in 2008 and that has since become his personal focus, though he maintains a keen interest in medieval/renaissance Italian longsword fencing and still teaches that also, as well as some other styles. Matt has conducted a lot of original research on the subject of British military swords and swordsmanship, which is gradually being published, and this is the focus of his work going forwards.

Matt has released various pieces of research, both online and traditional publications, including writing the contextual introduction for D A Kinsley’s Swordsmen of the British Empire and publishing Elliott's Art of Attack and Defence. He is working on a number of other upcoming publications.

Matt has lectured at the Wallace Collection on various occasions, the Tower of London, the Royal Armouries in Leeds, to the Armour Research Society, the British Arms and Armour Society and at two International Arms and Armour Conferences in Florence and Vienna. Matt has also given lectures at various HEMA events, as well as giving presentations on historical combat to varied public audiences, including for the computer game company Ubisoft at the EGX games show in Earls Court. Matt has consulted on several TV and film projects, including training fighters and consulting for the BBC. He also consults for museums occasionally. He has appeared on various 'expert reacts' videos for IGN and Insider.

Matt has played an active role in developing new equipment for HEMA, and has been involved in the development process of various pieces, including the 'Easton Mark III' practice sabre with Kvetun Armoury. He works with the Royal Armouries and Windlass Steelcrafts on a range of accurate historical replicas. Matt also helped LK Chen bring their first medieval European sword replica (the Ribaldo) to the market. Matt's product development work continues and is scaling up.

Matt has ranked highly in HEMA swordsmanship competitions in former years, winning the Longpoint Sabre Invitational, the Glorianna Cup, the BFHS longsword competition, the BFHS Spring Exchange Backsword Tournament, the FightCamp Sabre Tournament and the FightCamp Assault at Arms. He has also ranked highly in events in Dijon, Florence, Vienna and elsewhere. He has always been a strong exponent of instructors demonstrating their skill under the pressure of a competitive environment. Matt has been heavily involved with running HEMA tournaments for many years, and has created rules and run tournaments around the UK and in France.

Matt is an avid collector of antique weapons and is also a dealer and company director of Easton Antique Arms Ltd. 

Matt also has a background in archery, both modern and traditional longbow and recurve, and also regularly shoots historical firearms as a member of the MLAGB and NRA.

Lucy was formerly the lead instructor at the Woking class. She still instructs, but not regularly.

He focuses on 19th century sabre and foil, with his main sources of study including the works of John Musgrave Waite, Captain Alfred Hutton, Louis Rondelle, George Chapman, and Camille Prevost, while also having a keen interest in Italian authors such as Luigi Barbasetti and Masaniello Parise, among others. Pedro also trains longsword according to Fiore dei Liberi, and is also a senior student with The Renaissance Sword Club, where he studies rapier & dagger.  

Pedro is currently (March 2024) ranked first in sabre in the world on HEMA Ratings. He teaches regularly in Schola Gladiatoria, runs private lessons in sabre and foil, and teaches and competes internationally.