Lionel Walker Birch Martin (1878 - 1945) was a British businessman, who founded the

company, with Robert Bamford that became Aston Martin.

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Their first prototype was registered in March 1915. To provide an evocative name for the car,

the pair remembered their races at Aston Hill, and called the car the Aston-Martin; the AM radiator

badge went onto their cars.

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Due to petrol rationing in the war, Martin returned to travelling on his bicycle. He was knocked off at a set of traffic lights near his home and died, aged 67, in Kingston County Hospital on 21 October 1945.