It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Martyn Pearson after a long, bravely fought battle against cancer.
Martyn was born in Elstow and showed promise from an early age and was, not unsurprisingly, appointed head boy at his school.
After he left school, Martyn trained as an architect, enjoying spells with The Victor Farrer Partnership, Charles Wells, SDC, The Land Settlement Association and Ding’s Entertainment agency, a role that played to his strengths and one of his real passions – event planning.
He spent the last 25 years of his career at Autoglass, retiring from his role as their Property Manager in 2017.
Throughout his career, Martyn also advised private clients on their personal property projects, including preparing the drawings for their schemes and seeing them all through from planning application to project completion.
Martyn was known in many different circles and was one of those people who you knew you were always in safe hands. Martyn was a ‘doer’, ask him to do anything and you knew it would be done quickly and to a very high standard.
Martyn loved clay pigeon shooting with his close friends, who became known as the ‘gun club’.
He had also joined the Beds and Herts Regiment of the Territorial Army and was a member of the Honourable Artillery Company, where he became possibly the longest to serve in the Company of Pikemen & Musketeers.
Martyn was involved in the very first Bedford River Festival, taking on the organising of the raft race.
He was then involved in every single River Festival thereafter, taking charge of all the events on the water, which led to his role as Chair of the Bedford River Users Association.
In 1999, Martyn joined Nick Kier and the team behind the popular St George’s Day Festive Ball & Golf Day, where, together with The Rotary Club of Bedford Park, he helped drive the celebrations to their peak in 2017 when he and Nick stood back following the event’s 25th anniversary.
In 2016, Martyn supported Nick in organising ‘7for7in7’, a challenge to run seven half marathons in seven days for seven different charities. The event was a complete success, raising £65,000 for the nominated charities.
In 2019, Martyn teamed up with Nick once more for ‘Bashing the Bedfordshire Boundary’, a 150-mile challenge to run around the Bedfordshire boundary inside 24 hours in aid of Motor Neurone Disease, successfully raising £70,000 in the process.
Both events were fully supported by The Rotary Club of Bedford Park.
Martyn’s most important role, however, was that of the family man, a devoted husband, father and, in the last year, grandfather.
Commenting on the sad loss of Martyn, Nick said: “Martyn was a true man of the community within which he lived and epitomised the role of a ‘super’ volunteer.
“He gave selflessly of his time and energy, ensuring the success of everything that he was involved in, knowing that he had the support of his family behind him.
“To say that he will be greatly missed doesn’t come close, but the legacy he has left is immense.
“Rest in peace, Martyn.”
Martyn’s funeral is at Bedford Crematorium on Friday, 23 January at 11.45 am. All welcome.
