Charles Martin (physiologist)

Born in Wilmot House, Dalston, he was the twelfth child of Josiah (an insurance company actuary) and Elizabeth Mary Martin (née Lewis), Charles James was part of an extended family of children from his parents' previous marriages. Being a delicate child, he was sent off to a private boarding school in Hastings. At 15 he was employed as a junior clerk at the insurance firm where his father worked. He studied mathematics as a requirement for a future as actuary, but showed no special aptitude. Browsing through the numerous bookshops in the area, he came across a secondhand copy of "A Hundred Experiments in Chemistry for One Shilling." Carrying out these experiments, he was sufficiently inspired to entreat his father to allow him to pursue a career in science. He accordingly took evening classes at King's College, London. He then studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital and spent some time in Leipzig studying physiology under Karl Ludwig. ==Career==

In 1891 he accepted a post as lecturer at Sydney University, before moving to the University of Melbourne as acting Professor of Physiology. He remained in Australia for 12 years, after which he returned to the UK to become the first Director of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1901. ==Personal life==

Martin married Edith Cross, daughter of Alfred Cross (and aunt of the Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, Geoffrey Cross and the legal scholar Rupert Cross) in 1891. She died 2 March 1954. They had one daughter, Maisie. Martin died 15 February 1955 at Old Chesterton, Cambridge. He is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. ==References==