Alfred Martineau

Read this article to learn about the soldier Alfred Martineau.

Major Alfred John Martineau was the Commander of Newhaven Fort during the early years of the war.

Alfred John Martineau was born in 1871, the youngest son of Judge Alfred and Maria Martineau, 6 Evelyn Terrace, Brighton.

He was a highly qualified doctor and surgeon and worked at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street before going on to practice at Hove, Sussex, where he was also a surgeon to the Brighton Ear and Throat Hospital.

Alfred Martineau had served for many years in Sussex Territorial Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). During the early part of the war he was stationed at Newhaven, in command of the Fort. The Fort was an important part of the defenses along the Sussex coast and guarded the supply port at Newhaven. Major Martineau would leave command by 15th November 1915.

Major Martineau was then sent to France on 7th April 1916. He was killed in action on April 17th 1917 aged 46 whilst with the 19th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. He was shot by a sniper whilst doing reconnaissance work in connection with his battery. He is buried at the Bully-Grenay Communal Cemetery, British Extension, Bully-les-Mines, Pas de Calais.

The British Medical Journal reported his life and death in 1917

ARMY.
Killed in Action.
MAJOR A. J. MARTINEAU, F.R.C.S.
Major Alfred John Martineau, F.R.C.S., Royal Garrison Artillery, was killed in action on April 17th. He was the
youngest son of the late Judge Martineau, and was educated at St. Thomas’s Hospital, taking the M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P.Lond. in 1895, and also the F.R.C.S.Edin. in 1899. After filling the posts of house-surgeon at St. Thomas’s Hospital, and at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, and of house-physician to the Brompton Chest Hospital, he went into practice at Hove, Sussex, where he was surgeon to the Brighton Ear and Throat Hospital. He had served for many years in No. 1 (Brighton) Company of the Sussex Territorial Royal Garrison Artillery, and on August 26th, 1914, was promoted ‘to the rank of major and to the command of the company. During the early part of the war he was stationed at Newhaven, in command of the fort at that port, and subsequently took his company overseas.

His fellow soldiers mourned his loss upon receiving news of his death.

‘I learnt the news that one of our best liked Officers of prewar days, a Major Martineau, who in happier days had been a leading surgeon at the Children’s Throat and Ear hospital in Upper Church Street, Brighton, had been killed in France while marking the fall of shot of a German battery. A Great Loss’
Corporal C. E. Cornford, Sussex 

At the time of his death Alfred Martineau’s address was 22, Cambridge Road, Hove. He was 46 years old.

Questions

1) What was Alfred Martineau’s pre-war job?

2) Why was Newhaven Fort important during the war?

3) How did Major Martineau die?

Images

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