Member Biography
Oscar William Martyn
(1889.12.02 – 1968.12.21)
B.A.Sc, CE, DLS, SLS (LM)
Commission #044
(1912.04.15)
Mr. Martyn was the Director of Surveys, Province of Saskatchewan from 1947 to 1957. Graduating from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with post-graduate work in Astronomy and Geodesy he was commissioned as a Dominion Land Surveyor in 1909 and a Saskatchewan Land Surveyor in 1914 and he entered private practice in Regina in 1912. He then moved to Swift Current, Saskatchewan and was in partnership with Mr. P.J. MacDonald, P.E.. He served in World War I with the 77th Battery, C.F.A. C.E.F and was discharged in 1918 as a sergeant.
His life as a land surveyor and engineer took him all over Saskatchewan. From 1925 to 1934 he was with the Saskatchewan Department of Highways as a District Engineer and then with Underwood and McLellan, Saskatoon. His duties included many mineral claim surveys in the north around Lake Athabaska along with surveying the towns of Goldfields and Lodge Bay. He was engaged on the 4th Meridian township surveys, airports and many subdivisions in the Province. From 1938 to 1947 he was with the Federal Government as a Hydraulic Engineer and Land Surveyor.
It was Mr. Martyn who tutored some of us young new students in Astronomy and Calculus prior to our SLS examinations in 1949.
Mr. Martyn was president of the Saskatchewan Land Surveyors Association in 1940 and became a Life Member of the Association in 1957. Mr. Martyn was married and they had two daughters. He was a Mason and a member of the Engineering Institute of Canada and Saskatchewan.
“Martyn Lake”, shown on map 74N13 is a 3 mile long lake along the Saskatchewan-Alberta border at Latitude 59 degrees and 51 minutes and Longitude 110 degrees 00 minutes.