George Cross Recipient. Little is known of his service prior to 1939, by which time, he had become a Radio Officer as a British merchant seaman. When World War II started, Turner had already suffered the misfortune of having served on two ships that sunk. At 6AM on September 6, 1939, his ship "SS Manaar," a British Cargo Steam Vessel, was torpedoed by the U-38, killing seven crew members. This ship was off the coast of Spain. The torpedo exploded amidships, and the submarine then surfaced and commenced firing on the stricken vessel. After about 20 minutes, the captain gave orders to abandon ship and the boats were lowered. Turner insisted on staying behind to help two wounded Lascars. He tried to lower a lifeboat, which crashed into the sea, and then he carried a severely wounded Lascar to another boat, which was blown to pieces by shellfire with him in it. Turner then swam out to a crashed boat and pulled it alongside. The other Lascar climbed down a rope into the boat, which Turner cut adrift, and they joined the Master's boat. All of this was under shellfire. During this ordeal, his leg was seriously injured leading to a below the knee amputation. Of the three ships that rescued them, the one that saved him was an Italian ship, thus he became a prisoner of war. He was taken prisoner to Stalag II POW camp. He was treated there and other prisoners made him crutches. "SS Manaar" was one of the first British merchantmen sunk during World War II. After the war, he was repatriated to Scotland to recuperate. He was awarded the Medal of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for Gallantry shortly after this incident, but the medal was exchanged for the George Cross in 1943. He decided not to return to sea and bought a small holding in Kent. In 1951 he married and the couple had a son and a daughter. After changing his job position, he could only travel home on the weekends. On November 5, 1967 after the weekend with his family, he was traveling on a busy Sunday evening train with passengers standing in the aisles. The train derailed near the Hither Green Maintenance Deport in London. Eleven of the twelve coaches derailed with four turning on their side, resulting in 49 fatalities and 78 injured. He was among the fatalities.