He went on to Oxford University to read Modern History in 1981, and was elected President of the Oxford Student Liberal Society and then Chair of the party’s national student wing, the Union of Liberal Students.

Martin went on to work in a London advertising agency and then in the voluntary sector.  In 1990 he moved to Oxford to work for Oxfam and was elected as a local district and parish councillor there. 

Martin fought the 1992 general election in Oxford East while Nigel Jones won Cheltenham for the Lib Dems.  During his stay at Oxfam, Martin’s teams raised tens of millions of pounds for the poor in developing countries, including £2.5m for victims of the Rwanda genocide.

Martin kept in close touch with home and joined groups like the Leckhampton Green Land Action Group (co-founded by his father Don Horwood) to support the campaign against over-development around the town.

In 1995 he married Dr Shona Arora who was then training in public health medicine.   They moved to India for a year, Martin working for Oxfam and Shona for the UN programme on AIDS and a small charity working on sexual health in the slums of Delhi.

They returned to the UK, Martin becoming the first Director of Fundraising at the Alzheimer’s Society, the leading care and research charity for people with dementia and their carers. Martin led the team that won the charity Tesco Charity of the Year, earning £2.5m for the charity nationally, including £16,000 for the Cheltenham branch of the Society alone.   While living in London, Martin stood again for parliament in the constituency covering the City of London and Westminster.

Martin returned home to Cheltenham in 2001 to work for local business Target Direct (now Tangible Response) which works mainly with charity clients.  He became their Head of Consultancy.  Shona was appointed Director of Public Health for Cheltenham and Tewkesbury and later on for Gloucestershire.

Martin and Shona have a daughter Maya and son Sam, who were both born in Cheltenham General and both go to school in Cheltenham.