Martin Ryle was born 27 September 1918. In 1947 he married Ella Rowena Palmer and they had one son and two daughters. He began working at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), 1939-45, where radar was being developed and then took up an ICI Fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 1945-48. His positions at Cambridge University included University Lecturer in Physics (1948-58), Reader (1958-59), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1949), Professor of Radio Astronomy (1959-82), then Emeritus. He was Director at the Mullard Radio-Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, 1957-82 and was Astronomer Royal, 1972-82. He received a number of honours and awards including being knighted in 1966 and being awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics (jointly with Professor Anthony Hewish) in 1974. Sir Martin Ryle died 14 October 1984.