BORN HULL 1898. SON OF MARGARET & LATE GEORGE WILLIAM TURNER, OF 20, WILFRED TERRACE, WESTBOURNE STREET, HULL (1911 CENSUS) AND 65, EDINBURGH STREET, HESSLE ROAD, HULL, (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). SECOND OF THREE SONS. WORKED AS A NEWS BOY AND FOR THE NORTH EASTERN RAILWAYS WHICH HE JOINED AT THE SAME TIME AS HIS ELDER BROTHER, GEORGE. JAMES TURNER.
HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED WITH THE 11TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. KILLED IN ACTION, AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917, AGED 19. HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS MOTHER, MARGARET. HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE ARRAS MEMORIAL.
HIS OLDER BROTHER, GEORGE WILLIAM TURNER, SERVED AS A SERGEANT, IN THE 1/5TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, AND WAS KILLED IN ACTION, ON 23/04/1917. THEIR MOTHER HAD LOST TWO SONS IN TWO WEEKS. BOTH SONS ARE RECORDED ON THE WAR MEMORIALAT ST JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH, NEWINGTON, HULL.
The attack on Oppy Wood, part of the Battle of Arras, was a significant battle for the East Yorkshire Regiment and particularly for the city of Hull. All four Hull Pals battalions were involved on 3 May and all suffered heavy casualties, with 40% of those present killed or injured. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a local teacher and rugby player with Hull FC, won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in rushing a machine gun position to protect his platoon. His body was never found.
The village of Oppy in France had been in German hands since October 1914 and was part of a formidable defensive system including trenches, dug-outs and thick barbed wire defences. During the Battle of Arras, which began in April 1917, the British tried to take Oppy. The first attack was a failure. A second attack was partially successful. The third attack on 3 May, known officially as the Third Battle of the Scarpe, was again unsuccessful with significant loss of life. The troops were ordered to attack at 3.45am, rather than at dawn, and the defending Germans could easily see the line of British soldiers clearly lit by the full moon. The British continued to attack Oppy and were finally successful the following year. The City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
