Sir Charles James Martin Kt CMG FRS FRCS[1] was a British scientist and director of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, who did seminal work on a wide range of topics including snake toxins, control of body temperature, plague and the way it was spread, dysentery, typhoid and paratyphoid.

Born in Wilmot House, Dalston,[2] he was the twelfth[2] child of Josiah (an insurance company actuary) and Elizabeth Mary Martin (née Lewis),[2] Charles James was part of an extended family of children from his parents' previous marriages.

Author of: – 'The Chemistry of the Venom of the Australian Black Snake' (Proc Roy Soc, NSW, 1892); 'The Physiology Action of the Venom of the Australian Black Snake' (ibid, 1895); Curative Action of Calmette's Serum against Australian Snakes' (Internat Med Journ, 1897–1898, and Proc Roy Soc, 1898); 'Nature of the Antagonism between Toxins and Antitoxins' (ibid, 1898, joint Author); 'Separation of Colloids and Crystalloids by Filtration' (Journ of Physiology, 1896); 'Observations on the Anatomy of the Muzzel of 'Ornithorhynchus',' with Dr Wilson (Linn Soc, NSW, 1892); 'Observations on the Femoral Gland of 'Ornithorhynchus',' with Dr Tidswell (Linn Soc, NSW, 1894); 'An Investigation into the Effects of the Darling Pea, 'Swainsonia galegifolia' (Agricultural Department of NSW); 'Cerebral Localization in Platypus' (Journ of Physiol, 1899)'[4]During World War I he served with the Australian Army Medical Corps in Gallipoli, Egypt, and France as a pathologist with the rank of Lieutenant-colonel.

He then spent a further two years in Australia as head of the animal nutrition division of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Adelaide.

In 1934 he undertook an experimental study of the myxoma virus, at Cambridge and on a rabbit-infested island in Pembrokeshire, to show it was both safe and effective to control plagues of rabbits.

His contributions to the foundation of biological science in Australia were commemorated by the National Health and Medical Research Council, which created the Sir Charles James Martin Overseas Biomedical Fellowships in 1951.