Cyril Gordon Martin

Cyril Gordon Martin's military career carried him from the opening battles of the First World War to senior engineering appointments in the Middle East and India, but it was two actions within the first seven months of his active war service that established his reputation for exceptional gallantry. Educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Martin was commissioned into the Corps of Royal Engineers on 23 December 1911 and joined the 56th Field Company at Bulford on Salisbury Plain. He arrived in France with the company on 16 August 1914 as part of the 3rd Division of the British Expeditionary Force. victoriacrossonline.co.uk Only ten days later, during the retreat from Mons, Martin distinguished himself at the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August 1914. When infantry had been driven from a defensive post under heavy enemy pressure, he held the position with his section of Royal Engineers under intense fire until infantry reinforcements arrived to relieve them. Martin was wounded through the shoulder and also suffered a bayonet wound to the hand. He was mentioned in despatches on 8 October 1914 and awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his conduct at Le Cateau, the award being gazetted on 9 November 1914. victoriacrossonline.co.uk After recovering in England, Martin returned to France on 21 February 1915 and rejoined the 56th Field Company. On 12 March, during operations at Spanbroekmolen on the Messines Ridge, he volunteered to command a grenade-throwing party of six rank-and-file soldiers against a strongly held section of the German trenches. Although wounded early in the action, Martin led the party into the enemy position and prevented German reinforcements from retaking it for almost two and a half hours, remaining until the captured trench was ordered evacuated. For this action he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The award was gazetted on 19 April 1915, and King George V presented Martin with the decoration at Buckingham Palace on 12 July 1915. The official citation stated: "For most conspicuous bravery at Spanbroek Molen on 12th March, 1915, when in command of a grenade throwing party of six rank and file. Although wounded early in the action, he led his party into the enemy's trenches and held back their reinforcements for nearly 2½ hours, until the evacuation of the captured trench was ordered."

Following his recovery, Martin served as an Assistant Instructor at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham until May 1916. He then began a lengthy period of service connected with the Egyptian Army and Sudan. He took part in operations against the Lau Nuer and in the Nyima Hills and Nuba Mountains during 1917 and 1918, service represented in his medal group by the Khedive's Sudan Medal 1910-22 with the Lau Nuer and Nyima 1917-18 clasps. He also served with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force during General Edmund Allenby's Palestine campaign until the end of October 1918. In September 1923 he received the Egyptian Order of the Nile, Fourth Class. victoriacrossonline.co.uk The chronology of Martin's final year in Egypt and Sudan requires more precision than the previously published wording. He was attached to the Sudan Defence Force from January to July 1925 as Assistant Director of the Works Department. On 15 July 1925 he took up an appointment as Assistant Instructor in Field Works and Bridging at the School of Military Engineering, Chatham, where he remained until 1928. This dated appointment should replace the broader statement that he continued serving with the Egyptian Army until November 1925, because the two formulations otherwise create an unresolved contradiction. victoriacrossonline.co.uk Martin subsequently served in India and took part in operations on the North-West Frontier during 1930-31. A London Gazette despatch confirms that Major C. G. Martin, VC, DSO, Royal Engineers, was brought to notice for distinguished services during the North-West Frontier operations of 1930. A later biographical source states that he was mentioned twice during the wider 1930-31 operations, but only one of those mentions has so far been independently established from the primary Gazette record. For publication, it is therefore safer to state that he was mentioned in despatches for his 1930 frontier service, rather than describing two mentions as fully verified. After serving as a General Staff Officer, Grade 2, in India from 1933 to 1936, Martin was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and again saw operational service on the North-West Frontier. For services in connection with the Waziristan operations of 1937 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division. The same official Gazette of 16 August 1938 separately records Martin among those mentioned in despatches for distinguished services in Waziristan between 16 September and 15 December 1937. The Gazette This second frontier MiD is therefore verified and is represented on his India General Service Medal 1936-39 ribbon by a bronze oak leaf. During the Second World War, Martin held a succession of senior Royal Engineers appointments in the Middle East and India. He was promoted to acting brigadier on 23 April 1941 and served as Chief Engineer, British Troops in Iraq until February 1942, followed by further senior engineering appointments in the region and in India. By 1945 he was again serving in senior engineering command in India, and he also served as an Aide-de-Camp to King George VI during the closing period of his military career. Martin's surviving medal group contains the War Medal 1939-45 with a Mention in Despatches oak leaf, confirming a further wartime MiD represented by that emblem. victoriacrossonline.co.uk Martin's retirement date should be stated as 26 March 1947, not December 1946. The London Gazette subsequently corrected the record to show that Colonel C. G. Martin, VC, CBE, DSO, service number 1006, retired on retired pay on 26 March 1947 and was granted the honorary rank of brigadier from the same date. The Gazette This removes the apparent conflict between a December 1946 retirement and senior Indian service continuing into the closing phase of his Regular Army career. In retirement, Martin worked for the Forestry Commission, served as a lieutenant in the Devon Army Cadet Force from 1951 to 1955, and was active in the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association. He died on 14 August 1980 at the age of 88. Detailed specialist biographical sources identify the place of death as Morden College Hospital, Blackheath, London, rather than the Royal Herbert Hospital at Woolwich. victoriacrossonline.co.uk Because I have not yet located the civil death certificate or a contemporary obituary independently confirming the hospital, I recommend that the public biography simply state that he died in London on 14 August 1980 unless you want to retain the secondary-source hospital attribution. His medal group was subsequently presented to the Royal Engineers Museum at Chatham, where it is preserved.