Martin Avenue was dedicated to Reverend Cyril Edward Martin by the Canada Lands Company on August 15, 2007, as part of their redevelopment of Edmonton’s former Canadian Forces Base (Griesbach Barracks).
During the First World War, after Cyril enlisted at barely 16, he landed in the trenches in Belgium, assigned to the 7th Battalion, Canadian Railway Troops where he laid tracks for running supplies to the front line. He learned all about blood, mud and gas attacks. The war shook his faith, but it did not kill it.
After the war, he attended Toronto Bible College for several years then went to Saskatchewan to preach. He attended St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon and was ordained as a United Church minister in 1929. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Cyril re-enlisted in the army, this time as a chaplain assigned to the 7th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery stationed in England.
After the war, Cyril continued to work in a military hospital in England. Back in Canada, he ministered at several Edmonton churches. In his 90s, he visited Vimy and Passchendaele and received the Legion of Honour from the French people. When he passed away in November 2003 at 103, he was Alberta’s last surviving First World War Veteran.