John Edmund Martineau

John Edmund Martineau (9 December 1904 – 3 June 1982), commonly known as Jack, was an English brewing executive of the Martineau family, who served as President of the Institute of Brewing and as Master of the Brewers' Company.

Family background

Born in 1904, he was the eldest son of brewer Maurice Richard Martineau (1870–1943), of Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk, and Mary Cator (died 1956), granddaughter of Rear-Admiral Sir Ralph Cator and sister of Sir Ralph Cator, the jurist.

His great-great-great grandfather, surgeon David Martineau (1726–1768), married Sarah née Meadows (died 1800), daughter of Alderman Philip Meadows, Mayor of Norwich, and was father of John Martineau (1758–1834) an early co-owner of Whitbread's after the family breweries merged in 1812. However, John Martineau died in an industrial accident by falling into a yeast vat at the Chiswell Street Brewery in 1834 and his shares in Whitbread passed to his son Master Brewer Richard Martineau (1804–1865), who bought the Walsham-le-Willows estate in 1854 and helped found St Mary's Hospital, London.

Education and career Martineau was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford, where he completed a classics degree. He worked at Mure's Brewery in Hampstead, before joining Whitbread & Co. in 1925 and became managing director in 1931, making him the fifth member of his family to sit on Whitbread's board since it took over the family business, Martineau & Bland, in 1812.

During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force, being promoted Wing Commander and posted to the Directorate of War Organisation in the Air Ministry. After the war, he returned to Whitbread's and was responsible for overseeing research and technical affairs, including the re-opening of its laboratory in 1946. Martineau worked closely with the Head Brewer, Bill Lasman, and the pair tried to apply scientific advances to brewing. According to his obituary, Whitbread's Luton brewery "would never have been built in that matter if not for the training and encouragement they gave to the technical staff". and also served as Chairman of the Governors of Dame Alice Owen's School and Aldenham School. and her maternal grandfather was pioneering social reformer the Rt Hon. Charles Booth.

Dividing their time between homes in Suffolk, Buckinghamshire and London, they had 3 sons and two daughters.

His obituary in the Journal of the Institute of Brewing records that "his heart was especially close to research and to education" in the brewing industry; Martineau was described as don-like and an intellectual. He died on 3 June 1982.