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Alexander Gustav Martin (1874-1946) was born in London, to an Anglo-German mother, Wilhelmine Frederike Kleinwort Martin (1853-1917) and a German father, Philipp Ludwig Robert Martin (1846-1929). His family was part of a large and prominent community of families of German origin in Champion Hill in south London. As a fairly young boy, A.G. Martin was sent to Switzerland for his health and education, and while there he became interested in preparing for a military career in the Prussian army. His family sent him to Kassel, Germany for specialized education and training. He joined the Prussian army in 1893, and was commissioned as an officer in 1894.

His military assignments included work in foreign service as a military attache, most notably in Washington, D.C. during the Theodore Roosevelt administration. He served in the German army during World War I, and was taken as a prisoner of war by the Russian army in 1915. He was sent to a prison camp in Siberia, where he remained until December 1916 when he was returned to Germany in a prisoner of war exchange.

Martin served in the German army for 27 years, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Prussian 6th Dragoons in 1919. After his formal discharge, he joined his family at their home near Konigstein. He and his wife, Andree Richmers Martin, had three children, Gerald, Albert ("Bertie"), and Angela. In 1936, he published a memoir: Mother Country, Fatherland: The Story of a British-Born German Soldier (London: Macmillan, 1936).

Both of his sons, Gerald and Albert, served in the German army during World War II. Alexander Gustav Martin died in Hessen, Germany, in 1946.