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From the top: Elsie, Pastor Harry Martin, Mrs. Prudence Martin, Ted Martin, and Grace Martin.

From Australasian Record, March 17, 1975.

Martin, Jesse Edward (Ted) (1906–2004) and Martha Dickson (Brown) (1912–1991)

By Martin Ward

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Martin Ward, M.A. in English (Andrews University, Michigan) retired in 2000 as lecturer at Pacific Adventist University in Papua New Guinea. An Australian by birth, Ward has spent most of his working life as an educator and librarian in overseas countries. In retirement he spends his time volunteering in various capacities in the community. He is married to Olga and they have four children, eleven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. 

First Published: January 29, 2020

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Jesse Edward Martin, known as Ted, was an Adventist minister who served in Australia, Fiji, the New Hebrides, and Bougainville as a teacher, engineer and pastor.

Early Years

Ted Martin was born to Harry Rowland Martin and Prudence Evangeline (Hill) in Cooranbong, New South Wales, on September 1, 1906.1 His father was a student at the Avondale School for Christian Workers at the time.2 While still a baby, he moved with his family to the Darling Range east of Perth where his father established the Darling Range School (later West Australian Missionary College, now the Carmel Adventist College).3 After five years, the family moved to Victoria. Then three years later, when Martin was eight years old, his father was asked to go to Fiji as principal of the Buresala Training School in Fiji.4

Education and Early Teaching Experiences

Martin attended West Australian Missionary College (now Carmel Adventist College) as a boarding student between 1923 and 1925.5 In 1926, he enrolled at the Australasian Missionary School at Avondale (now Avondale College).6 Visiting his parents in Fiji in 1929, he was asked to help out as a teacher. He remained in Fiji, teaching at the Indian school at Samabula,7 and at Buresala8 until the end of 1932.9 He returned to Avondale in 1933 and graduated at the end of that year from the teaching course.10 After graduation he went back to the West Australian Missionary College where he taught woodwork subjects for twelve months.11 At the end of 1934, he was asked to return to Fiji, this time to Buresala.12 But he did not return alone as he and Martha Dickson Brown were married in the Bickley Church, Western Australia, on December 26, 1934.13 Martha Brown was born on January 18, 1912, in Kilbirnie, Renfrewshire, Scotland.14 She trained as a nurse in Western Australia.15

Further Mission Work

Over the next six years in Fiji, Martin taught first in Buresala on Ovalau, then at Vatuvonu on Buca Bay, and finally served as headmaster at Wainibuka in Colo East.16 He developed a great love for the islands and for the Fijian people.17 During this time the Martins’ son, Rowland Andrew (Roy), was born in Suva.18 At the end of 1940, Martin was transferred to Aore, New Hebrides, as “engineer and technical instructor.”19 The Martin family was evacuated to Australia in the middle of 1942 as the Japanese forces advanced through the New Guinea Islands and the Solomon Islands towards Vanuatu.20 After some months in the homeland war service, Ted Martin and his family moved to Cooranbong where he worked as an engineer in the Sanitarium Health Food factory. In July 1946, Martin was appointed to Bougainville to work as a missionary pastor, and to rebuild the mission station after the war.21 Their daughter, Lorna Margaret, was born in Sydney, just before Martha Martin joined her husband in Bougainville.22 Martin was successful in his work as a missionary pastor and was ordained to the gospel ministry in October 1948.23 The family returned to Australia in the middle of 1950.

Final Years

From that time until he retired in 1966, Martin worked as a minister in various towns in New South Wales and in the South Island of New Zealand.24 He was, for example, instrumental in the construction of a new church building at Taree, New South Wales.25 He settled his family in Cooranbong, and after some time he and his wife separated.26 Martha Martin died in 1991.27 Ted Martin’s second wife, Jean, was living in Elizabeth Lodge, a nursing home, at the time of his death on September 10, 2004, in the Hornsby Hospital, Sydney.28

Sources

“Brother Edward Martin with his bride…” Australasian Record, January 21, 1935.

Craig, Robert, John Truman, Cedric Ward and Martin Ward. “Jesse Edward Martin obituary.” Record [South Pacific Division], October 23, 2004.

Dickens, H. A. “Reorganizing on Bougainville.” Australasian Record, July 10, 1950.

“Distribution of Labour.” Australasian Record, September 21, 1931.

Engelbrecht, G. F. “Training Natives for Leadership.” Australasian Record, March 31, 1941.

Goldstone, S. R. “Lorna Margaret Johnson Obituary.” Record [South Pacific Division], September 26, 1992.

Harry Rowland Martin Biographical Records. South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives.

J. Shaw M. Donald. “Graduation Exercises.” Australasian Record, November 27, 1933.

Jesse Edward Martin Biographical Records. South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives.

Jesse Edward Martin. Certificate of Registration as a Teacher, Fiji. Held in the personal collection of the author.

McMahon, B. H. “Itinerating in Fiji.” Australasian Record, August 17, 1936.

“Mission Notes from Fiji,” Australasian Record, May 25, 1931.

Palmer, C. S. “Martin-Brown marriage.” Australasian Record, January 28, 1935.

“Recent action has been taken…” Australasian Record, November 14, 1938.

Rutter, T. W. “West Australian Missionary College.” Australasian Record, January 28, 1935.

Spear, Paul. “’Even So, Lord, Come.’” Australasian Record, November 9, 1985.

“West Australia.” Union Conference Record, January 28, 1907.

Notes

  1. Jesse Edward Martin Biographical Records, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Folder: “Martin, Jesse Edward,” Document: “Martin, Jesse Edward;” Harry Rowland Martin Biographical Records, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Folder: “Martin, Harry Rowland,” Document: “Martin, Harry Rowland.”↩

  2. Ibid.↩

  3. “West Australia,” Union Conference Record, January 28, 1907, 6.↩

  4. T. W. Rutter, “West Australian Missionary College,” Australasian Record, January 28, 1935, 5.↩

  5. Jesse Edward Martin Biographical Records, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Folder: “Martin, Jesse Edward,” Document: “Martin, Jesse Edward.”↩

  6. Jesse Edward Martin Biographical Records, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Folder: “Martin, Jesse Edward,” Document: “Martin, Jesse Edward.”↩

  7. “Mission Notes from Fiji,” Australasian Record, May 25, 1931, 3.↩

  8. “Distribution of Labour,” Australasian Record, September 21, 1931, 4.↩

  9. “Brother Edward Martin with his bride…,” Australasian Record, January 21, 1935, 8; Jesse Edward Martin, Certificate of Registration as a Teacher, Fiji, held in the personal collection of the author.↩

  10. J. Shaw M. Donald, “Graduation Exercises,” Australasian Record, November 27, 1933, 5; Jesse Edward Martin Biographical Records, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Folder: “Martin, Jesse Edward;” Document: “Martin, Jesse Edward.”↩

  11. T. W. Rutter, “West Australian Missionary College,” Australasian Record, January 28, 1935, 5.↩

  12. Ibid; B. H. McMahon, “Itinerating in Fiji,” Australasian Record, August 17, 1936, 3.↩

  13. C. S. Palmer, “Martin-Brown Marriage,” Australasian Record, January 28, 1935, 7.↩

  14. Jesse Edward Martin Biographical Records, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Folder: “Martin, Jesse Edward,” Document: “Martin, Jesse Edward.”↩

  15. “Brother Edward Martin with his bride…,” Australasian Record, January 21, 1935, 8.↩

  16. “Recent action has been taken…,” Australasian Record, November 14, 1938, 8.↩

  17. Jesses Edward Martin, Certificate of Registration as a Teacher, Fiji, held in the personal collection of the author.↩

  18. Jesse Edward Martin Biographical Records, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Folder: “Martin, Jesse Edward,” Document: “Martin, Jesse Edward.”↩

  19. G. F. Engelbrecht, “Training Natives for Leadership,” Australasian Record, March 31, 1941.↩

  20. Personal knowledge of the author as a nephew of Ted and Martha Martin.↩

  21. Ibid.↩

  22. S. R. Goldstone, “Lorna Margaret Johnson Obituary,” Record, September 26, 1992, 13.↩

  23. Dickens, H. A, “Reorganizing on Bougainville,” Australasian Record, July 10, 1950, 3.↩

  24. Personal knowledge of the author as a nephew of Ted and Martha Martin.↩

  25. Paul Spear, “’Even So, Lord, Come,’” Australasian Record, November 9, 1985, 9.↩

  26. Martha Dickson Martin Sustentation Records, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Folder: “Martin, Martha Dickson,” Document; “Martin, M. D. (Martha Dickson).”↩

  27. Ibid.↩

  28. Robert Craig, John Truman, Cedric Ward and Martin Ward, “Jesse Edward Martin obituary,” Record [South Pacific Division], October 23, 2004, 13.↩

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Ward, Martin. "Martin, Jesse Edward (Ted) (1906–2004) and Martha Dickson (Brown) (1912–1991)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=A7ZO.

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Ward, Martin. "Martin, Jesse Edward (Ted) (1906–2004) and Martha Dickson (Brown) (1912–1991)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Date of access November 28, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=A7ZO.

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Ward, Martin (2020, January 29). Martin, Jesse Edward (Ted) (1906–2004) and Martha Dickson (Brown) (1912–1991). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved November 28, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=A7ZO.

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