Henry Robert Charles Martin

Henry Martin
Personal information
Country	England
Born	1889 Maskeliya, Ceylon
Died	1942

Henry Robert Charles Martin (1889 – 1942) was a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London and a male English international badminton player.

Born at Maskeliya, Ceylon, the eldest son of Henry Thomas Martin, later of South Kensington,^[1] Martin was educated at Bedford School, then at Lincoln College, Oxford. He was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1912. He represented England as a badminton player.^[2] During the First World War, he served as a captain in the East Lancashire Regiment, and in the Intelligence Department from 1938-41.^[3] His first heraldic appointment came on 31 May 1922 when he was made Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary to replace Archibald George Blomefield Russell.^[4] He held this position until 2 August 1928 when he was promoted to the office of Richmond Herald of Arms in Ordinary to replace Gerald Wollaston.^[5] Martin was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1930. He held this office until his death from heart failure on 23 July 1942.^[6][7]

In 1914, Martin had married Mary Gladys, daughter of the Rev. John Whitby St Quintin, M.A., rector of Hatley St George, Cambridge; they had three daughters: Diana, Pamela (who married, in 1936, John Maitland Cowper, of Barclays Bank),^[8][9] and June.^[10][11]

He was part of the English team that toured Canada in 1925 to promote the sport on behalf of the Canadian Badminton Association which had recently been formed in 1921.^[12][13] He lived in Earls Terrace London at the time.

Coat of arms of Henry Robert Charles Martin

Notes Granted in 1926[14] Crest From an Eastern crown Or a horse's head Sable mane Or charged on the neck with a scallop Or. Escutcheon Argent 2 bars & 6 escallops in orle Gules. Motto Mediocria Maxima Badge A scallop reversed Gules charged with a martlet Or.

• Heraldry
• Pursuivant
• Herald