Gwyn MartinDFM was a Welsh photographer and pharmacist. He was born in the Rhondda in 1921 and died in 2001 in Aberystwyth.
Wartime experience
Gwyn Martin was still at school when he enlisted with the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of the Second World Warin September 1939. After completing his training at No. 15 Operational Training Unit as a navigator in April 1941, he joined No. 75 Squadron RAF at RAF Feltwell flying the Vickers Wellington bomber. Three months and 20 missions later he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after a daylight bombing of the docks at Brest inflicting further damage to the German battleship Gneisenau. His aircraft Wellington 1457 "P" was severely damaged with repeated attacks by four ME109's. Pilot Officer Curry returned the damaged aircraft for a high speed crash landing at Boscombe Down without wheels or flaps. Martin finished his first "tour" before his 20th birthday and spent the next six months at No. 12 Operational Training Unit as a Check Navigator / Bomb Aimer before returning for a second "tour" in May 1942 with a posting to No. 150 Squadron RAF at RAF Snaith. In October 1942, on the day after his 21st birthday, Wellington BK.309 "N” was on a minelaying mission in Haugesund. The aircraft was hit by flak and severely damaged while flying at 600 feet at night. Pilot Officer Ken Rees managed to ditch the burning aircraft in a small inland lake . Flight Sergeant Don Taylor and Flight Sergeant Harry Dalziel were killed while the rest of the crew were captured and spent the next two and a half years as prisoners of war in Stalag Luft III near Zagan in Poland. In January 1945 he was among the prisoners force marched in Arctic conditions over 100 km to Spremberg then Luckenwalde where he was liberated by the Russians.
Post-war activities
After his release from the RAF, Martin entered university and in 1948, qualified as a pharmacist. In 1946 he married Jane Marjorie Lloyd from Aberystwyth and they both ran "Taylor Lloyd, the Chemists", in Great Darkgate Street, Aberystwyth, until their retirement. In an article on the BBC Home Page for the Mid-Wales area, Alistair Crawford gives a brief biography, stating In 1989 Martin published his "partial" autobiography entitled Up and Under which detailed his war years and the time he spent as a POW at what he called the "University of Life" in Stalag Luft III.
Photography
It is as an enthusiastic and distinguished photographer that he is best remembered; he was President of Aberystwyth Camera Club from 1958 onwards. Lindy and David Martin have published a book in 2004 of a nostalgic look at some of the changes that have taken place in Aberystwyth through the eyes of their father, in which many of his photographs are to be found, entitled A Stroll Around the Harbour. Following his death his collection of photographs has been placed in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. Gwyn Martin supplied the photographs of local Aberystwyth RFC supporters to illustrate a book containing 30 popular rugby songs called "Sosban Fach" which was published in 1987.
