Born in Southsea in 1948, Martin moved with his family to the Isle of Wight at the age of 11-years-old, landing in Bembridge where he has lived for over 60 years. He was involved with Bembridge Lifeboat for 38 years, from the age of 12, first as a junior helping hand, cleaning the brass etc and eventually just before his 17th birthday going out on his first ‘shout’.

Martin’s career at sea began as a Navigating Cadet in 1965. After Nautical College he took on work as a navigational sexton plotting pipelines across the Solent for a local diving company. This led to further work diving and eventually took Martin to the oil fields in the Persian Gulf before heading to the North Sea for many years.

He is the leading force behind the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum in Arreton, which holds a huge collection of shipwreck artefacts.