Archer John Porter Martin was born in 1910, in London. He graduated from Cambridge University 1932. After spending a year in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory, he obtained a post at the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory. In 1938, he moved to the Wool Industries Research Association at Leeds. From 1946 to 1948 he was Head of the Biochemistry Division of the Research Department of Boots Pure Drug Company at Nottingham and in 1948 he joined the staff of the Medical Research Council, first at the Lister Institute and later at the National Institute for Medical Research. He was appointed Head of the Division of Physical Chemistry at the Institute in 1952 and he was Chemical Consultant from 1956 to 1959. In 1959, he became a Director of Abbotsbury Laboratories Ltd.
In 1941, Martin and Richard L. M. Synge developed liquid-liquid partition chromatography, which links analytical chemistry to the life sciences. Later, working with A.T. James, he developed the method of gas-liquid chromatography.
Information as of 1959