Giffard Le Quesne Martel
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Lieutenant General Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel KCB KBE DSO MC MIMechE |
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Martel in 1942.
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| Born | 10 October 1889 Millbrook, Southampton, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 3 September 1958 (aged 68) Camberley, Surrey, England |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
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| Service/branch |
 British Army
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| Years of service | 1908–1945 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Service number | 6628 |
| Unit |
Royal Engineers Royal Tank Regiment |
| Commands held | 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division |
| Battles/wars |
World War I World War II |
| Awards |
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Military Cross |
Lieutenant General Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel KCB KBE DSO MC MIMechE (10 October 1889 – 3 September 1958) was a British Army officer who served in both World War I and World War II. Familiarly known as "Q Martel" or just "Q", he was a pioneering British military engineer and tank strategist.
He was the son of Brigadier General Charles Philip Martel who was Chief Superintendent of Ordnance Factories. He married Maud Mackenzie on 29 July 1922 and they had two children, a son, Major Peter Martel, MC, born 1938 and a daughter, Gillian, born 1941.
Martel entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1908 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the British Army's Royal Engineers on 23 July 1909. Martel was instrumental in the establishment of The Royal Navy and Army Boxing Association in 1911 and was Army and Inter Services boxing champion both before and after World War I.
In 1916, as a sapper officer with direct experience of the first British use of tanks on the Somme, Martel was put in charge of recreating a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) wide replica of the British and German trench systems, complete with no man's land, at Elveden, Norfolk, as part of a tank training ground.
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