Robert Martin arrived in Australia from his native Newcastle in 1912. In early 1914 he took up duties as the honorary secretary of Northumberland and Durham but enlisted before season’s end on 17 August 1914.
On 17 May 1915 the Melbourne Herald reported “SOLDIER REMEMBERED Private R. Martin, of the Australian Expeditionary Force . . . was killed in Egypt on February 26,” having been jammed between two Cairo trams. In response a “large illuminated photograph of the club’s team, with an inset of Private Martin, has just been forwarded to the bereaved parents by Mr J. Bergin, who sailed for England by the steamer Beltana on Saturday.”