J. S. Martinez served in the British Honduras Territorial Force in World War I. He dedicated his self-published book of poems, Carribean Jingles, published in Belize about 1926, to Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable James Cran. The book's introduction expresses Martinez's "wish that these commonplace subjects depicting chiefly occurrences in our community and in our everyday life, may strike a tuneful chord and help to cheer some gloomy soul." Nothing else is known about his life.