A. B. Martin

Mr A. B. Martin, of Martinborough, who was a student at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, from 1911 to 1913, has been awarded the Bledisloe Medal for 1953.

The latest winner of the award is a successful farmer, a returned serviceman, and a local body administrator. He has also had a long association with farming organisations, and has taken a notable part in the settlement of returned servicemen in his district.

At Canterbury Agricultural College, Mr Martin was a member of the First Eleven and the First Fifteen. He gained his diploma in agriculture in his final year at the College. When war broke out in 1914, he was working on his home farm at Martinborough. He volunteered for military service, but because he was not passed medically fit in New Zealand, he went to England, where he obtained a commission in the Royal Field Artillery.

In 1917 and 1918 Mr Martin served in France with the 15^th Division. In 1920, he returned to Martinborough, and he has since farmed the Martin property of 2,500 acres. Now, as a result of his work in improving the property by regrassing, topdressing and draining, the farm carries 3,000 breeding ewes, 1,500 dry sheep, and 600 head of cattle, including 200 breeding cows.

Mr Martin has been active in the public life of the Wairarapa district. In the .days of the Farmers' Union, he was chairman of the Martinborough branch for 14 years. He was elected to the Featherston

County Council in 1931, and in 1938 he became county chairman-a post he still holds.

During World War II, his time was fully occupied with patriotic work. He was appointed deputy-chairman of the Rehabilitation Farming Sub-Committee in the Wairarapa district.

The presentation was made at the Diploma Day ceremony at the College. The citation of the award was read by last year's winner, Mr P. G. Stevens, a member of the College staff, and Mr R. H. Bevin, a former student and member of the College's lecturing staff, who was the official speaker at the ceremony, handed the medal to Mr Martin. Source: 1954 Canterbury Agricultural College Magazine, p56.