Andy Martin

The son of a high-ranking Amy officer, Andy Martin was educated at Eton before following his father into the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. In 1947, he won the individual title at the British Modern Pentathlon Championships at Aldershot and also won the team title with his regiment. Martin and his regiment again carried of both prizes at Aldershot the following year. Martin’s success guaranteed him selection for the 1948 London Olympic Games, where he finished 20th, and was the highest placed of the three British competitors.

Martin later became a Devon farmer but in the early 1960s decided to up sticks and, leaving his wife and three boys behind, headed for Australia where he took over the lease on the remote Middle Percy Island, off Australia’s east coast on the Great Barrier Reef. His wife did not join him because it was too remote for her and they divorced. The self-styled “King of Percy”, Martin stayed for 32 years until declining health forced him to return to England in 1996. He visited Middle Percy for the last time in late 2002, and died in a Queensland nursing home the following May.