J. Martin England was a missionery, Associate Executive Director of the Minister and Missionaries Board, and a Civil Rights activist. He and his wife Mabel both served as missionaries in Burma, serving in Bhamo among the Kachin mountain tribes until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. They returned to Burma in 1945, staying until 1950. Mabel, originally born in Decatur, aAabama, was active in girls' clubs and infant welfare. During part of her service in Burma, she served as a volunteer officer in both the Girl Guide Association and the Infant Welfare Society. In 1942, J. Martin England assisted Clarence Jordan in forming Koinonia Farms, near Americus, Georiga. This experiment in interracial community living was often the target of violence. From 1953 until his retirment in 1972, England served on the staff of the Minister and Missionaries Board, first serving as a field representative and eventually, in 1964, becoming an associate director of the Board. A close personal friend of Martin Luther King Jr., he brought the civil rights leader into Minister and Missionaries Board membership shortly before Dr. King's Assasination in 1968.