Leslie Harold Martin was born on 21 December 1900 at Footscray, Melbourne, in the State of Victoria, Australia, the son of Henry Richard and Ettie Emily Martin (
née
Tutty). His father came from Somerset and was superintendent of transport for the Victorian Railways, but died prematurely as the result of an accident. His mother was born midway between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne on a bullock train that her father operated for many years between the two cities [1]*. As a child he received his primary education in Melbourne at the Flemington State School from which he gained a scholarship to Essendon High School. He was only 11 years old when his father died and, as money was always scarce, he had to work as a grocer’s errand boy to help support him self at home and at school. He studied hard and managed to win a Junior State Scholarship that took him to the premier Melbourne High School for his final three years of secondary schooling. Here his natural gifts and interest in mathematics and science were soon recognized and encouraged by his mathematics teacher, Miss Julia Flynn, and this led to his winning a Victorian Education Department Senior Government Scholarship on the basis of his excellent performance in the school leaving examinations in December 1918. This scholarship enabled him to enter the University of Melbourne at the beginning of 1919. He was admitted to the course ‘B.Sc. for Education’ to train to become a teacher.