diff --git a/common/thorhelper/thorread.cpp b/common/thorhelper/thorread.cpp
index 5aebf0bc942..d552b78d154 100644
--- a/common/thorhelper/thorread.cpp
+++ b/common/thorhelper/thorread.cpp
@@ -1248,7 +1248,7 @@ class MarkupDiskRowReader : public ExternalFormatDiskRowReader, implements IXMLS
     StringBuffer rowTag;
 
     ThorActivityKind kind;
-    IXmlToRowTransformer *xmlTransformer;
+    IXmlToRowTransformer *xmlTransformer = nullptr;
     Linked<IColumnProvider> lastMatch;
     Owned<IXMLParse> xmlParser;
 
diff --git a/fs/dafsserver/dafsserver.cpp b/fs/dafsserver/dafsserver.cpp
index 207f0dd5a52..385eb4bde2e 100644
--- a/fs/dafsserver/dafsserver.cpp
+++ b/fs/dafsserver/dafsserver.cpp
@@ -1724,7 +1724,7 @@ class CRemoteMarkupReadActivity : public CRemoteExternalFormatReadActivity, impl
     typedef CRemoteExternalFormatReadActivity PARENT;
 
     ThorActivityKind kind;
-    IXmlToRowTransformer *xmlTransformer;
+    IXmlToRowTransformer *xmlTransformer = nullptr;
     Linked<IColumnProvider> lastMatch;
     Owned<IXMLParse> xmlParser;