A war-time guest for Spurs, Jackie Martin plied his trade for Aston Villa in peace time.
Born in Birmingham, he went to the Rughley High School, before coming to London to study at the St. Marks and St. John's College.
Jackie's first club was Hednesford Town, a non-league club close to his home town, where he made good progress and was snapped up on amateur forms by Villa in October 1934. He signed as an amateur, as he had a good job as a teacher in the town where he started his football career, but decided he could carry on his civilian trade as well as being a professional footballer, when he signed for Villa just three months after first entering the club.
Scored at almost a goal every two and half games, getting called up by England a couple of times before the war interrupted league football and Jackie went off to serve with the Army. Based mainly in this country, he guested for Birmingham City, Wrexham, Nottingham Forest, Portsmouth and Aldershot as well as Tottenham Hotspur. While with Spurs, Martin had his most successful as a footballer, scoring 15 goals in 45 appearances as the team won the war-time Southern Football League in 1943-44 and the following season.
When football resumed after the war, Jackie returned to Aston Villa and played out the remainder of his career there until his retirement in 1949, when he went back to teaching, although later he managed Hednesford Town.
Jackie Martin died on 3rd March 1996.