Alexander Martin

The son of the 1908 Olympic military rifle silver medallist John Martin, Lieutenant Alexander Martin won the Grand Aggregate at Bisley in 1920, nine years after his father had won the same title. Alexander won the King’s Prize silver medal in 1928 and, four years earlier, finished a creditable ninth (out of 73 starters) in the rifle, prone, 600 metres event at the Paris Olympics.

Between 1920-59 Martin, jnr. appeared in the final of the King’s Prize 15 times and, in a lengthy international career with Scotland, appeared in the National match against Wales, Scotland and Ireland at Bisley 22 times, and the Mackinnon Cup match 20 times between 1919-57.

Martin rose to the rank of major while serving with the Army Service Corps during World War I. After the war he worked as an engineer and lived in the United States for a while in the late 1930s before returning to Scotland and becoming a partner in the family firm, Alexander Martin Gunmakers. Such was his expertise on the subject of guns that Martin was regularly called upon to act as an expert witness in court cases, and quite often in murder cases.

Martin married his wife May in Bisley’s church of St. John the Baptist on 4 July 1920. The couple spent their honeymoon in the town, as Martin had shooting commitments, and obviously marriage suited him because he won the Grand Aggregate two weeks after getting married.