From the Traveller RPG Wiki on wikia.com:
Hailing from northeast England, Martin J. Dougherty is a professional writer specialising in military history. He has been at times a games designer, an engineer, a self-protection instructor, a teacher and a defence analyst. Martin has published a range of books covering topics as diverse as self-protection, medieval warfare and space flight, and has addressed international conferences on anti-shipping missiles and homeland security issues.
Martin is best known in the Traveller community as the creator of the '1248' background. He also founded Avenger Enterprises, an independent Traveller publisher, and wrote several books for Mongoose Traveller including Spinward Marches, Reft Sector and Central Supply Catalogue.
Martin's interests include martial arts and fencing. He coaches the University of Sunderland Kickboxing team and Ju-Jitsu club, and has competed to national level as a fencer. As a martial artist he holds black belts in Combat Ju-Jitsu, Tai-Jitsu and Self-Defence. Martin is a Master Level Assessor with the Self-Defence Federation and is currently working on a series of self-protection books with SDF Head Dave Turton.