David John Pattison Martin (born 5 February 1945) is a British Conservative politician.

Early life

Martin is a farmer,

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and former employee of the family caravans and motorhomes sales business "Martins Caravans Company Ltd." founded by his father, the late John Besley Martin, CBE. He was educated at

Kelly College Kelly College was a coeducational independent school in the English public school tradition situated in the outskirts of Tavistock, Devon, with around 350 students ranging from ages 3 to 18. There was an associated preparatory school for pri ...

, Tavistock and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge where he also was part of the Hawks' Club and later a member of Inner Temple.

Parliamentary career

Martin served as a Teignbridge District councillor from 1979 to 1983. He stood for Yeovil at the 1983 general election but was defeated. He served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South from

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

until 1997 general election, when he was unseated by the Liberal Democrat candidate Mike Hancock. He stood again at the 2001 general election in the seat of Rugby and Kenilworth and at the 2005 general election in the seat of

Bristol West Bristol West is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2015 by Thangam Debbonaire of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. It mostly covers ...

but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

Family

According to a source he is married to Basia Dowmunt and has one son and three daughters, including the fiction novel author Cesca Major (née Martin). He is also paternal uncle of Coldplay's lead vocalist, Chris Martin.

References

External links

* 1945 births Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Devon People educated at Kelly College {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1940s-stub