Allen Martin

Allen Martin (12 August 1844 – 13 July 1924) was an English sailor who founded a private school at Port Adelaide, became the founding headmaster of Port Adelaide Central School, and was later an inspector of schools for the South Australian Education Department.

Martin was born in Bosham, Sussex, the son of John Martin, a master mariner engaged in the coastal trade. Martin was educated at a local church school, then entered the upper grade (reserved for sons of master mariners and naval officers) of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, where he trained as an instructor and achieved a teacher's certificate. He taught for a while, then joined the shipping firm Soames Brothers trading to India and Australia, eventually becoming mate of the Dartmouth. In 1867, after six or seven years at sea he quit the ship in Sydney, and joined the gold rush to Gympie, Queensland, followed by Kilkaven and Rockhampton. He had little luck and as mate of various vessels worked his way around the coast to Port MacDonnell, South Australia, where he worked as a laborer, loading bags of wheat for Adelaide, then worked his way to Adelaide aboard the government ship Flinders, arriving on 12 August 1869 at Port Adelaide. There he tried to find work as a laborer, and found work at Reynolds timber yards. The story goes that he was rejected by both George Shorney (1829–1891), manager of Dunn's mill, and James T. Russell (1842–1929), manager of Hart's Mill. Three months later sons of these two men would be among his first pupils.

Port Adelaide Grammar School was founded by the (Anglican) Rev. Frank Garrett (c. 1835 – 17 September 1885) in 1863, then in 1868 the school closed and the building on St. Vincent Street was advertised for sale. The Rev. Garrett left for England at the end of that year, suffering ill health.

Allen Martin re-opened the school in January 1869 with seven pupils, reaching fifty at the end of the first year. It soon became necessary to hire a couple of pupil teachers: Charles Charlton (c. 1862 – 15 March 1931), later superintendent of primary schools, and Richard Llewellyn (c. 1860 – 6 January 1935), later headmaster of LeFevre Peninsula school. In 1876 the school building was purchased by the Council of Education, and Martin appointed headmaster.

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