Turner F H Lt 10th Kings Liverpool Regiment
LIEUT. FREDERICK HARDING TURNER, OF THE 10th SCOTTISH (Service) BATTALION KING’S LIVERPOOL REGIMENT.
After leading many teams to victory in the fields of sport, Lieutenant Frederick Harding Turner won a supreme victory over death on the field of battle on January 10th, 1915. The younger brother of the subject of our preceding Memoir, he was born at Liverpool on May 29th, 1888, and educated at Greenbank School, Liverpool, Sedbergh and Trinity College, Oxford.
On leaving school and college he was associated with the firm of Turner & Dunnett, Liverpool of which his father is senior partner. Lieutenant Turner was one of the most notable rugby football players of modern times. He was captain of both cricket and football teams at Sedbergh and at Oxford he played as a “fresher” for Trinity and gained his Rugger Blue in 1908 when the “Varsity” match of that year ended in a drawn game. A year later he led the Oxford forwards in their runaway victory over the Cantabs, and in 1910 he was made captain of the Fifteen and although Cambridge made a great fight for it the Dark Blues gained the verdict by 23 points to 18.
On leaving Oxford he set about the reorganisation of the Liverpool Club, which efforts proved highly successful. From a poor side he transformed it into a great team. His wonderful power as a hard scrummager brought him before the notice of the Scottish Selection Committee and he played in all the internationals of 1911-12, namely against England, Ireland, Wales and France. The next season he had the honour of the captaincy conferred upon him, and although the year had been a disastrous one up to the time of the English match, the Englishmen, who held an unbeaten record, were badly defeated by the impetuous rushes of the Scots. Lieutenant Turner was an able and a skilled scrum leader, well-versed in the arts of hooking, while his height made him serviceable in the play out of touch. He was a clever dribbler and a grand place kicker. Scotland, who conferred 15 Caps upon him, will assuredly mourn his loss.
An appreciation of his football written by one who said he had the good fortune to be on more than nodding terms with Lieutenant Turner, says:-
“The news is really lamentable, for of all the footballers in recent Scottish teams, he was surely one of the nicest fellows. Possessed of an equable, genial temperament, he was hard to upset; he was a man who inspired confidence among his fellows; a man who was just the type to lead a team of Rugby footballers He was always keen to appreciate the work of the younger members of the team, encouraging the men to even greater deeds by a kindly timely word. He did not condemn at any rate on the field-but he did praise, and I think this was one cause of his success as a skipper.”
“And then the end-the end of A Man if ever there was one. Freddy Turner gained much fame on the green field of football; but he will by his friends be remembered for the greatest self-sacrifice he made when he laid down his life for his country.”
A well known International Captain writes as follows :-
“The death of F. H. Turner has been a sad blow to his many friends, and to one unused to writing character sketches it is indeed hard to put down on paper the effect that his cheering presence had upon those with whom he was acquainted. His play like his tackle was hard and straight, and never have I seen him the slightest bit perturbed or excited, and in this fact lay the secret of his great power of control. His kicking ability is well known and his tenacious determination to stick it was well shown in the Varsity match of 1909, when he returned to help his scrum in great pain, with one knee useless owing to a displaced cartilage. Off the field he was the same. Whether one saw him at his home, at his old school, at the Varsity, or walking on the hills, his face always showed his cheery satisfaction with the world at large. At any moment he would burst into that cheery and infectious laugh. He was always ready to take his part in any harmless practical joking, on tour or elsewhere. His loss is part of the heavy burden of war, and England, in defending her honour, will have to face the loss of the very best of her sons.”
At cricket Lieutenant F. H. Turner was a good bat and bowler and a splendid fielder, he played in several of the Oxford matches, though not against Cambridge. He played regularly for the Liverpool Cricket Club.
In 1912, he joined the Liverpool Scottish as Second Lieutenant and was promoted Lieutenant in October, 1914. He left with the Regiment for the front in November, 1914.
Just before his death when conditions were at their worst, he wrote:-
“We are still going strong out here and manage to keep our heads above water, though at times we are hard put to it to do so, I can tell you! It’s a man’s life out here and it agrees with me splendidly. I have never felt fitter in my life; for goodness sake don’t believe all the yarns you see in the Liverpool papers about us. True we have some hardships and not a little discomfort, but it has been a picnic by comparison with what the regulars went through; they are a magnificent lot and one admires them more every day.”
A private in his Regiment writes–
“His first thought was always for his men; when their spirits were inclined to droop under the terrible discomfort of the trenches he rallied them and joked with them, though he was generally much worse off than they were, for he always took upon himself the most dangerous and disagreeable duties.”
And that was how he met his death, for he was seeing to the wire entanglements when a sniper who had tracked him along the trench picked him off. A wonderful proof of the affection in which he was held by the men of his Company was given by them when they went in a body and asked that his brother, Lieutenant W. S. Turner, might be transferred to their Company.
The Sedberghian says of him:
“If he was liked and respected as a schoolboy, as an old boy he was almost worshipped. Like most really great men he was totally devoid of “side,” and it was in this probably as much as in anything else that the charm of his personality lay. Most delightful and most loyal of friends, he embodied all that is best in Sedbergh life and tradition. Freddy Turner will be sorely missed, but if future generations of Sedberghians will take him as their model of all we would wish them to be, he will not have lived in vain, for in the words of another correspondent, he was indeed, an officer and a gentleman.”
Another most eloquent tribute was paid to this gallant officer by the Rev. E. G. Miles, in Sefton Park Church, in which he said:-
“Lieut. Fred Turner was killed in action in Belgium last Sunday morning as he was walking to the end of the line held by his platoon. He was laid to rest in the churchyard of Kemmel not far behind the firing line. We loved him as a man, we admired him as a great athlete, we honour him as a brave soldier. He possessed the rare power of making the best of even the worst conditions, and always refused to give in to any kind of disappointment with the lot of the active campaigner. The loss to his regiment is irreparable. Singularly gifted with strength of body and clearness of mind, he brought to them a high type of manly character. His was a loyal soul loyal to his home, his friends, his clubs, his city, his country. No man with such a multitude of interests can escape the power of worldly influences. His skill as an athlete brought him international fame, vet his success made no difference to his attachment to the simple and enduring things of life, for the temptation to allow these things to interfere with his home, religion or business was firmly mastered, and he remained to all who knew him the same quiet, modest, unspoiled soul. I think he has overcome the world. Such a character is our strongest apology for God and immortality. Men of this stamp are not produced except in a world governed by the love and wisdom of God.”
“While we mourn the passing of this noble life and join our sympathies to those sent by our King and Queen, and the officers and men of his regiment, to the members of his family, and to one other sad heart whose intended happiness he was to have made complete, we lift our hearts to God for the memory of a character so splendid in its integrity, so deathless in its worth.”
Not only has Lieutenant Turner overcome the world, as was said above, but he has now overcome death, and won for himself an abiding place in the realms of peace.
Source : The British Roll Of Honour Vol 1
Turner F H Lt 10th Kings Liverpool Regiment
TURNER, FREDERICK HARDING, Lieut., 1/10th (Scottish) Service Battn. King’s Liverpool Regt. (T.F.), 2nd s. 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, 29 May, 1888; educ. Greenbank School, Liverpool; Sedbergh (Sedgwick House, May 1902 to July, 1907), and Trinity College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. (Law, Class III) in 1910, afterwards joining the business of Turner & Dunnett, of Liverpool, of which his father was senior partner. He received a commission as 2nd Lieut. in the Liverpool Scottish, 18 May, 1912, and on the outbreak of war volunteered for foreign service. He was promoted Lieut. 25 Sept. 1914; went to the Front at the end of Oct. 1914, and was killed in action in the trenches east of Kemmel, 10 Jan. 1915, while inspecting barbed wire entanglements. He was buried in Kemmel Churchyard; unm.
The circumstances of his death were given as follows in a letter from a brother officer : “After breakfast on 10 Jan., 1915, he went down the trench to look at the barbed wire he had put out in front the night before. On the way he looked up twice for a second, and each time he was shot at, but both shots missed. He then got to a place where the parapet was rather low, and was talking to a sergeant when bullet went between their heads. Lieut. Turner said ‘By Jove, that has deafened my right ear.’ The sergeant remarked, ‘And my left one too, sir.’ Lieut. Turner then went a shade lower down, and had a look at the wire, and was shot clean through the middle of the forehead, killing him instantly.”
Lieut. Turner was the famous Rugby International forward. He played as a “fresher” for Trinity, gained his Rugger Blue in 1908, when the Varsity match of that year ended in a drawn game. A year later he led the Oxford forwards in their runaway victory over the Cantabs, this being the occasion of R.W. Poulton’s great feat of scoring five tries. In 1910 Mr. Turner was captain of Oxford, when they beat Cambridge by 23 points to 18. On leaving Oxford he took charge of the Liverpool Rugby Club, and his wonderful power as a hard scrummager brought him before the notice of the Scottish Selection Committee, and he played in all the internationals of that and the following year, namely, against England, Ireland, Wales and France. The next season, 1912-13, he had the honour of the captaincy conferred upon him, and although the year had been a disastrous one up to the time of the English match, the Englishmen, who held an unbeaten record, were badly defeated by the impetuous rushes of the Scots. Last season Mr. Turner was not keen on playing in the International fixtures, but an appeal for help from the Scottish Union brought him out of his semi-retirement, for he still assisted the Liverpool Club. He was also a cricketer of more than average ability, and held 15 international caps. He played for Oxford in 1909 and 1910, but not against Cambridge, and in 1908figured in the second eleven of Lancashire. His elder brother, Lieut. W. S. Turner, was killed in action, 16 June, 1915 (see his notice).
Source : De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour Vol 1
