Ansible 386 Supplement

While I thought about Martin’s many qualities and achievements, I must admit that I started to feel quite inadequate. But here goes.

There are so many tales of Martin’s life. I won’t tell any now, we’d be here all day! Those are best left for the pub, which somehow seems appropriate.

Martin was a man of huge talents, great appetites, and many and varied achievements. He was known and loved by hundreds – no thousands – of people from many walks of life.

Martin was unassumingly intelligent, independent of thought and action, but always modest. He was the first individual to win a landmark legal case against HMRC, without legal representation, and subsequently took a Law degree in his early sixties ‘just for interest’!

His determination to do things ‘his way’ could sometimes seem to be stubborn, but many is the time he dragged us with him to a place we would never have reached without him.

Martin was interested in everything, and tried to collect and keep everything he was interested in. That made for interesting domestic logistics.

In partnership with Dermot Dobson he helped advance the technology of medical imaging, and this work undoubtedly saved or improved the lives of countless people in the UK and abroad.

He was a great enthusiast for all things connected with beer – particularly the drinking bit, although even here his intellect shone through. Ask me later about the Hoare Exponential Drinking Technique.

Martin worked tirelessly on countless SF cons to help give thousands of people a great time. He ran sound and light systems, radios, real ale bars, programme items, served as chairman, and a hundred other things.

He was a master pyrotechnician, and together with a group of friends put on a huge number of excellent firework displays. Although some of the fallout could be worrying: for instance, one day a stray mortar was found on his bed!

Martin was very organized when it mattered, but also spectacularly untidy – a difficult balance to maintain!

And he was a proud Welshman!

I could go on with this list for a long time, but I only have a few minutes.

There is one word that sums Martin up more than any other: He was my friend. He was our friend.