Josh celebrates 100 years of life in Soham
IT WAS the year that old age pensions were introduced in Britain, French aviator Louis Bleriot made the first cross channel flight and Henry Ford started mass producing his affordable motor car.
But 1909 also marked the birth of Soham man Josh Martin, who was a small child when the Titanic sank and who has lived through two world wars.
The former horse trader celebrated a century living in the town on Saturday with a party at The Causeway Day Centre attended by dozens of his relatives and friends.
Born in Soham's Red Lion on November 6, Mr Martin lived at the High Street pub during the early years of his life when his parents, Josh senior and Emma Julia, were the publicans before and during the First World War.
After leaving the Red Lion, the family moved to Melton House in Townsend. Mr Martin now lives in Brook Street, where he moved aged 26 after getting married to his late wife, Emma.
As a child, he attended the Shade School where he was awarded a medal for never being late or absent, and later he attended Soham's old Grammar School.
When he left school, he joined the family horse dealing and horse slaughtering business based in The Shade, which he and brother Eric took over when their father died in 1964. The job saw him travel across the country to different horse fairs including the livestock market in Southall, London.
"The slaughtering of horses was essential in the war years for meat and apparently they did export some meat to Belgium.
Although granddad never went over there, apparently great-grandad, his dad, did visit Belgium," said Mr Martin's granddaughter Kate Bavester.
"When they had the slaughter house they had lots of calls from trainers in Newmarket if a racehorse damaged itself, asking them to take it away and deal with it."
Horses remained a big interest of Mr Martin's throughout his life and he kept them until he was 75.
Mr Martin has two daughters, Shirley and Jenny, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, with another due this month.
The 100-year-old visited the Red Lion on his birthday on Friday, where he talked about his memories of the pub.
"His life has been horses and every tale is about horses," said Miss Bavester, 46.
"He can remember how much he paid for a horse at a fair and how much he made for a horse.
"Because he is Soham born and bred, everybody who's been brought up there knows granddad.
"When he was younger he used to be up the town on his bike and everybody just knew who Josh Martin was."
She added: "Around 75 to 100 different people came to see him at his party and he had lots of chats with people he had not seen for years.
"Because he was a horse dealer he always had ponies and was responsible for teaching a lot of people to ride, and some of the people who came on Saturday were those he taught.
"He went home very tired and very happy."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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