Vincent Joseph Martin was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician, the son of Joe and Elsie Martin. He attended Marist Brothers Darlinghurst, leaving school at age 14½ and entering the State and then Commonwealth public service.

Martin was secretary of the Panania

Panania, New South Wales

Panania, a suburb of local government area City of Bankstown, is located 23 kilometres inner south-west of the Sydney central business district in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydney region...

 branch of the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 from 1949, and in 1969 was elected to the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 as the member for Banks

Division of Banks

The Division of Banks is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named for Sir Joseph Banks, the British scientist who accompanied James Cook on his voyage to Australia in 1770. It has always been based in the south-western suburbs of Sydney,...

. He held the seat until 1980, when he lost preselection to John Mountford

John Mountford (Australian politician)

John Graham Mountford is an Australian politician. Born in Sydney, he was a public servant and manager before becoming Mayor of Canterbury Municipal Council in 1977...

.

When Martin died at Woy Woy, New South Wales

Woy Woy, New South Wales

Woy Woy is a coastal town and a southern suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the southern reaches of Brisbane Water north of Sydney...

 in 2001, having finally succumbed to cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

, mourners included Les Johnson

Les Johnson

The Honourable Leslie Royston "Les" Johnson AM is a former Australian politician, minister and High Commissioner.In his mid-twenties, Les Johnson was elected as a Councillor for Sutherland Shire, New South Wales, where he served for five years.Johnson was elected for the Australian Labor Party as...

, Leo McLeay

Leo McLeay

Leo Boyce McLeay , Australian politician, was a Labor Party member of the House of Representatives from June 1979 to October 2004. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives 1989-93.-Biography:...

, Daryl Melham

Daryl Melham

Daryl Melham , Australian politician, has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since March 1990, representing the Division of Banks, New South Wales. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to a family of Lebanese descent and studied Law and Economics at...

, Kevin Stewart, John Della Bosca

John Della Bosca

John Joseph Della Bosca is a former Australian politician, representing the Australian Labor Party in the New South Wales Legislative Council...

, Pat Rogan

Pat Rogan

Patrick Allan "Pat" Rogan is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for East Hills from 1973 to 1999....

, Kevin Greene, Marie Andrews

Marie Andrews

Marie Therese Andrews , an Australian politician, is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Peats for the Australian Labor Party between 1995 and 2007 and then the electorate of Gosford since 2007.Prior to entering politics, Andrews was a private...

, and Paul Keating

Paul Keating

Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...

.