William Blair Morton Martin, pathologist, was the son of William Martin and his wife Helen Jane, born Porteous. He qualified as
Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Bachelor in Surgery (ChB) at the University of
Glasgow, Scotland, in 1905. In 1910 he was awarded a doctoral degree by the
same university with a thesis entitled Studies
on the Gram-negative Cocci. He was appointed as lecturer in bacteriology at
the University of Glasgow, pathologist to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children,
Glasgow, and after the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918) did extra war duties
as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Martin was an active researcher and published 'The isolation
of the gonococcus and its differentiation from allied organisms' (Journal of pathology and bacteriology,
1911) and six more papers during 1906-1915, as co-author with various colleagues, on studies of
immunity.
In 1918 Martin was appointed as the first professor of
pathology at the University of Cape Town. He arrived in South Africa around
April 1918, but in October that year died of Spanish influenza.
