Len Martin is a great-grandson of Charles Henry Martin,
the subject of this book. He was born in 1936 and grew up in
Hamilton, a town of about 7000 people in Western Victoria. His
father was a carpenter. In 1954 he went to Ballarat Teachers'
College to train as a primary school teacher. The teachers'
college was at that time located in the very same building in
which his great grand-father had taught almost 100 years
earlier. At this time he also joined the Dawson Street Church of
Christ, his great grandfather's old church, and remained a
member there for 17 years, until he left Ballarat to live in
Hall's Gap, a small tourist town in the Grampians National Park.
During his years in Ballarat he taught at various schools in the
area and also became well known as a footballer in the Ballarat
Football League.
In 1958 he married Judy Wiltshire, and two sons were born to
them, Peter and David.
In 1978 he left teaching and
entered into ministry with the Churches of Christ, first of all at Ballarat (York Street
Church, a sister church to Dawson Street) and then just outside
Melbourne in the Dandenong Mountains at a place called The
Patch. After five years he returned to Hall's Gap to live, and
taught in various schools nearby. He became involved in local
government and spent six years as a councillor, including one
year as Shire President. In addition to this, he spent a year
teaching in Papua New Guinea as Head Master of a school in the
highlands.
Since retirement five years
ago he has devoted his time to family history research, as well as gardening, jogging,
bike-riding, bush-walking and other equally enjoyable, but
non-profitable activities. These include two months volunteer
teaching of maths and music at a Church of Christ mission school
in Vanuatu, and another two months teaching English at a
Christian mission in Ukraine.
At the present time he and Judy have four
grandsons, all children of Peter.
From the Author - About the Book.
Apart from the final
printing, this book is entirely my
own work. I state this, not that I should be the recipient of
praise (should you find it interesting) or blame (should you
find it dull), but as a plain matter of fact. All the research
in the Public Records Office and newspaper archives, the
procurement of documents and photographs, the typing and setting
out of each page, was done by me. It was quite a large
undertaking, especially as I have no previous experience in this
type of work. Here and there some mistakes have slipped through
the net (my spell check wasn't working), and from time to time
you will notice various other inconsistencies. I trust, however,
that you will overlook these, bearing in mind that this is an
amateur production, and that you will gain some appreciation of
the life of one member of the Martin family.
Picture of Len Martin
If you have additions or
corrections to this page, please contact
us Bones in the Belfry home page
Page
last
updated
-
5 May 2014