Elizabeth Martin: Pillar of our community

Oct 29 2008 by Doug Archibald, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

THE TRAGIC and untimely passing of Standard and Galloway News editor Elizabeth Martin has left a void in the lives of many across the region.

As a pillar of the local newspaper community for some 39 years, Elizabeth, aged 56, was a well-known figure in all circles of society.

Originally from Parkgate, she was educated at Nethermill Primary and Dumfries High School.

Her first encounter with the world of employment was not with journalism, however. She initially worked in the office of Express Bakeries at their premises off the Glasgow Road in Dumfries — a building she was destined to come to know in totally different circumstances.

The venture into the bakery business did not last very long though as she decided her future lay in the world of newspapers.

Her first job, which began on December 22, 1969, as a junior reporter with the old Dumfries News, was to be the start of a long and successful career.

Under the watchful eye of her old mentor and friend, the late Bill Murray, she had a solid grounding in the business.

She worked out of offices in Dumfries High Street where she eventually joined the Standard team when the papers amalgamated.

In 1979 the paper went through a major upheaval quitting its old home. While the printing and advertising department moved to the bakery building in Glasgow Street, the editorial department. switched to a cramped, first floor office in Buccleuch Street.

By then Elizabeth was beginning to make her mark and she was given a special role helping develop the tabloid Wednesday Standard.

Shortly after that, on January 1, 1982, she became deputy editor.

Editorial eventually followed the print section to Glasgow Road in 1993 and, five years later in June, 1998, Elizabeth was promoted to editor of the Galloway News based in Castle Douglas.

Some three years ago, in April 2005, a company re-organisation saw her take charge of both the News and the Standard as regional editor, a post she held until her death.

Elizabeth’s career spanned the biggest upheaval the newspaper industry has ever witnessed with the disappearance of the hot metal printing side of the business in the face of computer technology.

She was an integral part of and led an award-winning team that brought regular successes down the years, most notably as Scotland’s Reporting Team of the Year for coverage of the Lockerbie disaster.

She was also an award-winning reporter in her own right having been named Scottish Weekly Journalist of the Year in 1998 for a pioneering series of articles on Dumfries and Galloway’s drugs problem which she researched by joining detectives on raids across the region.

An editor with strong views on how a local newspaper should integrate with the community which it serves, she was instrumental in launching a number of successful campaigns such as Blood Buddies at the Galloway News and the Standard’s drive to Save Glasgow University’s Crichton campus.

She was never afraid to become involved at the cutting edge such as her appearance in the Strictly Dance Fever charity fundraiser in Dumfries last year.

Elizabeth’s husband, Jack, died just five weeks ago following a brief illness. The devoted couple, who lived at Auchencairn, had been married for 33 years.