George Kerr

George Kerr, CBE (born 24 August 1937) is a Scottish judo expert. In 1957, he won the gold medal in the European Judo Championships in Rotterdam. In 2002 he was named one of the inaugural members of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame. In 2001 he became president of the British Judo Association. In 2010 he was awarded the grade 10th Dan by the International Judo Federation (IJF) for international services to judo. Having been preceded by Frenchman Henri Courtine (2007) and followed by Japanese American Yoshihiro Uchida (2014) and Italian Franco Capelletti (2017), Kerr currently is one of only four living IJF jūdan. He is the second Briton after Charles Palmer to have gained this rank in Judo. IJF judo dan rank awards are, however, not officially recognized by the Kodokan Judo Institute in Japan, and currently, Uchida (Kodokan 7th dan, 1983) and Courtine (Kodokan 6th dan, 1968) are the only IJF judan who concomitantly also hold a Kodokan judo rank of 6th dan or higher. Kerr received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2010