Name
Jack (John) Basil Turner
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/08/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
STK/2080
Royal Fusiliers *1
17th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VIS-EN-ARTOIS MEMORIAL
Panel 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Report
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Harpenden memorials, Not on the Rickmansworth memorials
Pre War
Jack Basil was born in 1899 in Rickmansworth to William Felix Turner and Alice (nee Robinson). Felix Turner was a police inspector and the family were living at High Street, Rickmansworth. Jack, aged 1 year, had 2 elder sisters, Winifred, aged 13, Ruby, aged 11 and a brother, Clement, aged 9.
His mother Alice Turner died in 1906.
On the 1911 Census William Felix was now a police pensioner and school
attendance officer and was living at 40 Cowper Road, Harpenden with his wife,
Grace, daughter, Ruby, a law clerk aged 21, and a son, Reginald, aged 1. He had
been married to Grace (nee Saltmarsh) for 3 years. Jack’s mother had died in
1906. Jack is shown on the 1911 Census as John Turner, aged 11 and born in
Rickmansworth, as a boarder at a small school with just 7 boarders at 5 Carlyle
Square, Chelsea.
Wartime Service
Jack attested as Private 1836 for the Middlesex Regiment on 30 Aug 1915 and was posted to 23rd Battalion (2nd Football). He stated his age to be 19, although he was, in fact, only 16. His address was given as Cowper Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire and his occupation was a clerk. (He worked in the Railway Clearing Centre in London. He was described as being 5ft 7in tall and weighing 122 lb.
On the 21st January 1916 he was recommended as unfit for general service for 12 months by the Travelling Medical Board and was discharged on 10th February. The same day he enlisted in Luton in the Royal Fusiliers as Private STK/2080. (STK indicates he was allocated to the 10th (Service) Stockbrokers Battalion at some time.
He was sent to France in August 1916.
On 13 September 1916 he was admitted to No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station with pyrexia of unknown origin and placed on a sick convoy the next day via No. 16 Ambulance Train. He then had a spell back in England but returned to France as a Lance Corporal in 17th Battalion. He was killed in Action on 23 Aug 1918 during the 2nd Battle of Albert.
Additional Information
His elder brother served with RNAS/RAF as MT Driver surviving the war. Some records give his name as John Bernard Turner, this may have been a mistake or perhaps deception for when he re-enlisted.
Jack is also commemorated on a family headstone in Rickmansworth (Chorley Road) Cemetery.
His pension cards record William Felix Turner as his father and dependant, living at Willow House, Cowper Road, Harpenden. The card does not record details for any pension awarded. After William’s death, the details were later amended to Grace Charlotte Turner, living at 49 Overstone Road Harpenden.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London)
Bn. London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles).
Acknowledgments
Pat Hamilton, Neil Cooper
Malcolm Lennox, Mary Skinner, Harpenden & District Local History Society (www.harpenden-history.org.uk)
