10 Facts About Ellis Martin

Ellis Martin was the first person to be employed by the Survey specifically as an illustrator.

Ellis Martin was born in Plymouth on 12 November 1881.

Ellis Martin became a professional artist, sometimes hired as a full-time resident artist and at other times freelance, for example for Selfridges.

Ellis Martin married Mabel Verstage in 1910 and they had a daughter, Gentian, who died at an early age in 1940.

Ellis Martin started in May 1919 with his picture already having been used for the Survey's official 1918 staff Christmas card.

Ellis Martin went on to design several more staff Christmas cards and, less ephemerally, the memorial stained glass windows for staff who had died in the War.

Ellis Martin designed the cover for a 1921 official report, one copy of which was sent by the Survey's Central Bureau, led by Harold Winterbotham, to Arthur Hinks, the rather irascible secretary of the Royal Geographical Society.

Ellis Martin's work was primarily to create the covers for Ordnance Survey maps for which he was the person mainly responsible from 1919 to when he retired in 1940.

Ellis Martin retired to Sussex to be near his family and where he continued painting for pleasure.

Ellis Martin died on 30 September 1977 in a nursing home.