Horace Edmund Martin
Monday
26th June 1916: Captain Horace Edmund Martin, son of Mr. John
Jeffrey Martin of Linslade, has died of
shrapnel wounds. Despite the best surgical attention, Captain Martin suffered
blood poisoning and relapsed. His parents and fiancée had been warned that he
was dangerously ill and travelled to France, where they were with him at the
military hospital at Le Treport where he died last Sunday (18th). After
receiving his early education at Mr. Douglas’s school at Beechcroft, Leighton
Buzzard, Horace Martin spent two years at Aylesbury Grammar School before
taking his degree at FitzWilliam Hall, Cambridge where he captained the cricket
team. Before the war Captain Martin toured Belgium with his great friend and
Cambridge tutor, Dr. L Alston. In 1914 he accepted the post of history master
at Ealing County School. At Aylesbury Grammar School he was one of the founders
of the School Cadet Corps, and he maintained his interest in the cadets at
Cambridge. In September 1914 he was commissioned in the 2/8th Battalion,
Middlesex Regiment. After training he went first to Gibraltar, then in a draft
of reinforcements to join the 1/8th Battalion in France. He was gazetted
Captain in December 1915. He had been acting as an instructor for some weeks
before he was wounded.
Horace Martin had been associated
with St. Barnabas Church, Linslade from childhood, first as a little boy in
Sunday School, then as a choirboy and later as choirman and reader. The early
celebration of Holy Communion at the Church yesterday morning was a requiem
service, and a memorial service for Captain Martin was held at the close of
Evensong. The altar was beautifully decorated by the choir in memory of their former
comrade, and the lectern was surrounded by roses and carnations as a memorial
gift from the St. Barnabas Lodge of Freemasons, of which Captain Martin’s
father was formerly Master. After the service the flowers were sent to a
hospital for wounded soldiers.
Source:
Leighton Buzzard Observer, 27th June 1916
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