Lieutenant Thomas Edwin Turner was born in Warwickshire, a son of Charles Walter Turner (1849-1904) and Ellen Clara Turner née Bayliss (b.1853). His birth was registered in 2nd quarter of 1889 in the Solihull registration district. His father was a County Court registrar clerk.
The 1891 census shows him living at Selwyn Lodge, Solihull, with his parents, his elder brother Arthur George Turner (1887-1902) and his half sister Emily Mary Turner (1881-1939) who was his father's daughter with his first wife, Emily Jane Turner née Rowley (1856-1881), together with a nurse and two female general domestic servants.
In the 1901 census both he and his younger brother, Charles Walter Turner (b.1893), were shown as boarding pupils at Greenhill School, Ascot Road, King's Norton, Birmingham and in 1905 he attended Rugby School, Lawrence Sheriff Street, Rugby, CV22 5EH. The 1911 census lists him as an architect, lodging in the home of Sarah Iris Heal at 59 Abingdon Villas, Kensington and on 25 July 1911 he was enrolled as student at the Royal Academy School.
He was commissioned in October 1914 as a Second Lieutenant in the 13th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Kensington). He entered France on 10 February 1915 and having been promoted to Lieutenant he was killed in action on 9 May 1915, our picture source giving more information about this. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Stone 10M on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, Berks Cemetery Extension, Rue de Messines, Comines-Warneton, Belgium.
On 22 December 1915 his army effects of £177-6s-2d were sent to his widowed mother who had moved to live in Surbiton, Surrey. This was followed by a further payment of £3-17s-6d on 13 March 1917. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal and these were sent in 1922 to his younger brother Charles W. Turner, C/o Messrs C. F. Price, Atkins & Price, Solicitors at 1 & 2 Waterloo Place, Birmingham.
He is also commemorated at the Rugby School Memorial Chapel and on the Surbiton War Memorial at Ewell Road, Surbiton, KT6 6AG.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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