Thurrock Local History Society is sad to announce the passing of one of our patrons Professor Geoffrey Almeric Thorndike Martin who died on 7th March 2022.

Professor Martin last lectured to the Society on 17th May 2013 about the Re-excavation of the Royal Tomb of King Horemheb in the Valley of the Tomb of the Kings.

Born and brought up in Aveley, he attended school at Aveley and later Palmer's School in Grays. Professor Martin got his BA in Ancient History at University College London in 1963 and went on to get his MA at Christ's College, Cambridge in 1966 and in the same year joined the Fellowship at Christ's as the Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellow. He was awarded his PhD in 1969 during his Junior Research Fellowship. In 1970 he left to return to University College London as a lecturer in Egyptology where he became Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology. He was a Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge.

Professor Martin worked in and directed fieldwork and epigraphic missions in Buhen, Sudan and Saqqara, Amarna and The Valley of Kings, Luxor, Egypt. He was also Field Director on the Cambridge Expedition to the Valley of the Kings. He was most well known for his discoveries of the tomb of Maya, Tutankhamun's treasurer, and the private tomb of Horemheb. Geoffrey was the author of numerous monographs, mostly concerning results of archaeological fieldwork, epigraphy (the study and interpretation of ancient inscriptions) and sigillography (the study of wax, lead, clay, and other seals used to authenticate archival documents) and papers on Egyptological themes.

On his retirement, Geoffrey was appointed Emeritus Professor of Egyptology at the University of London. He returned to Cambridge and was elected a Fellow-Commoner of Christ's College in 1998. Geoffrey continued to publish and in 2017 republished 'Tutankhamun's Regent: Scenes and Texts from the Memphite Tomb of Horemheb' for the Egypt Exploration Society, a mammoth volume recording the discovery of this important tomb at Saqqara.

He was a very nice man who will be sadly missed.