Turner W S Lt 10th Kings Liverpool Regiment
LIEUT. WILLIAM STEWART TURNER, OF THE 10th SCOTTISH (Service) BATTALION KING’S LIVERPOOL REGIMENT.
The elder of two brothers who nobly and unselfishly have both laid down their lives, Lieutenant William Stewart Turner was the son of W. N. Turner, Esq., of Mossley Hill Drive, Sefton Park, Liverpool. Born on March 19th, 1883, he was educated at Greenbank School, Liverpool, and Sedbergh, Yorkshire.
Although he did not attain to the same height of fame in the athletic world as his younger brother, yet he gained a considerable reputation for prowess both on the cricket field and as a rugby three-quarter back. He played both games in the teams of both of his schools and afterwards for Liverpool. He was a member of the Liverpool Cricket Club the Lancashire County Cricket Club and the Northern Nomads etc. In 1909 – 10 he captained the Liverpool rugby team. On the outbreak of War he enlisted in the Liverpool Scottish and was gazetted a Second Lieutenant in November 1914. On January 10th 1915 his brother Lieutenant F.H Turner was killed in Belgium and at the special request of his brother’s men he was sent out to take his place, leaving England the day after the memorial service for his brother.
Writing at the time, his pen traced these prophetic words:-
“Fred has just written urging me to come and join him, but alas! it will “not be on earth.”
He was promoted to Lieutenant in May, 1915, and just a month after, on the 16th June, the Liverpool Scottish passed through a terrible ordeal of fire, bore themselves with splendid gallantry, and won for themselves an immortal name, and on that day Lieutenant W. S. Turner passed into the keeping of the Eternal Father. He fell whilst leading his men in the charge on Bellewards Farm at Hooge, having just captured a German trench.
The Rev. A. Connell, M.A. speaking from the pulpit used the following touching words :-
“Lieut. Turner, with his quiet and modest ways, his unassuming but steadfast character, his filial devotion, his brotherly fidelity, his patient faithfulness to duty, and his unaffected sincerities, alike in time of peace and in the sterner tasks of war, might elude the casual eye at first, through his very lack of pretension and the self-forgetfulness of his bearing and disposition. Yet this man played a hero’s part. He stepped without fuss, and at once, into his fallen brother’s place. He won the affection and confidence of his men. Some of them, who have also fallen, have sworn as we know that for his own sake, as for his brother’s, if any hour of peril called them they should be found by his side living or dying. I know of no greater tribute, I know of no more enduring monument to his name than this enthusiasm of loyalty and trust which he earned from men who knew him through some of the severest tests that can befall the fibre and the temper of a human soul.”
Referring to these two gallant brothers the Sedberghian says:-
“No school has had two better friends than these two brothers. They were devoted to each other. Each had his own charm, and the unselfishness and the kindness of the elder were a fitting complement to the brilliance of the younger. The loss of two such men will be long felt at Sedbergh, for they were indeed charming in their lives.”
“Different in many ways, they were very much alike; strong in character, straightforward and cheery, they were always ready in any honest fun to carry it through with that good nature which was so typical of them both. “Their consideration of others and their mutual love and respect for each other was beautiful in its simple sincerity. In their lives as in their athletics, of which we at Sedbergh were so proud, they played the game, and now they have been taken from us, the one “sniped” in the trenches, the other while gallantly leading his men, and “we are left to mourn their loss, proud of the lives they have lived, proud of the death they have died, thanking God for the example they have left us as a sacred memory.”
With Lieutenant W. S. Turner fell his great friend Lieut. Christian Dunlop ; in the days of peace they had been drawn together, and together they took up the sword. They went to the front at the same time and together endured several months of the strain and hardship of trench life.
“They were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in death they were not divided.”
Source : The British Roll Of Honour Vol 1
Turner W S Lt 10th Kings Liverpool Regiment
TURNER, WILLIAM STEWART, Lieut., 1/10th (Liverpool Scottish) Battn. King’s Liverpool Regt. (T.F.), elder 8. of William Neil Turner, of Mossley Hill Drive, Sefton Park, Liverpool, by his wife, Jessie Stewart, dau. of the late Thomas Holder, of Liverpool, J.P.; b. Liverpool, 19 March, 1883; educ. Greenbank School, Liverpool, and Sedbergh (Mr. Wilson’s House, 1898-1901), and on leaving there entered the firm of Turner & Dunnett, of Liverpool, of which his father is senior partner. In Aug. 1914, when war broke out, he enlisted in the Liverpool Scottish and received his commission in the Reserve Battn. 17 Nov. just before the regt. left for the Front. He was in England when his yr. brother, Lieut. F. H. Turner, was killed in action, and it was immediately after this that he proceeded to the Front (18 Jan. 1915), where, following upon a petition from the men, he was attd. to the platoon with which his brother had been so popular an officer. He was killed in action while leading his men in the advance on Bellewarde Farm, Hooge, 16 June, 1915. They had just captured a German trench, when a heavy shell burst, killing him and Sergt. J. B. Jones instantly He had been promoted Lieut. May, 1915, and was unm.
Like his brother, Lieut. W. S. Turner was a keen athlete. He was in the cricket, and Rugby football teams at both Greenbank and Sedbergh, and gained both his cricket and football colours the year he left Sedbergh, being a useful three-quarter and a good cricketer. Afterwards he played regularly at cricket and football for the Liverpool Club, and was captain of the latter club in the season 1909-10. In 1908 the two brothers did a remarkable performance against Sedbergh in the Old Sedberghian Match ; in the first innings W. S. took 5 wickets for 8 runs and F. H. 5 for 16, then after scoring 66 runs between them, they took 9 wickets in the second innings, F. H. taking 7 for 26 and W. S. 2 for 10-in all taking 19 wickets for 60 runs.
Source : De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour Vol 1