EMERITUS fellow at St Antony’s College Herminio Martins, who has died aged 81, was an authority on the sociology of Latin America.

Mr Martins taught the subject at Oxford University for 30 years and was named emeritus fellow in his last year, 2001.

He died in Oxford on August 19 with his wife Margaret by his side.

Hermínio Martins was born on June 19, 1934, in the city of Lourenço Marques – now called Maputo – in Mozambique.

Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his aunt and uncle.

Mr Martins was an early militant against the extended military dictatorship in Portugal. It made visiting the country impossible, so in 1952, age 18, he decided to study at the London School of Economics in England, where he met Margaret.

After several years he graduated with a first class honours in sociology.

Mr Martins went on to teach at the universities of Leeds between 1959 and 1964, Essex from 1964 to 1971, Harvard from 1966 to 67, Pennsylvania from 1967 to 1968 and St Antony’s College, Oxford, where he taught the sociology of Latin America from 1971 to 2001.

Former student Maria Angela D´Incao said Mr Martins rarely spoke in public but described his published work as “eloquent and profound”.

She said omnivorous reading was the basis of his intellectual life and that his theoretical writings in political science were as profound and as extensive as the many years of exile that formed them.

His long-term research interests included sociological theory, the philosophy of the social sciences, the sociology of science, the philosophy and sociology of technology, and the historical sociology of Portugal and Brazil.

Mr Martins was named an emeritus fellow of the University of Oxford in 2001 and nominated as an honorary fellow of the Instituto de Ciências Sociais of the University of Lisbon.

An award of emeritus aims to honour and acknowledge distinguished and sustained service to a university.

Mr Martins leaves his wife, son Paul and grandson Daniel.