| Turton | William Harry | | Major | TURTON, WILLIAM HARRY, Major, was born 30 December 1856, at Peshawar, India, son of Lieutenant Colonel and Brevet Colonel Joseph Turton, Bengal Artillery, and grandson of Zouch Turton, of Chepstow and Monmouth. He was educated at Clifton College (Schools' Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society), and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (Pollock Medallist); and was gazetted to the Royal Engineers, as Lieutenant, 14 August 1876. He became Captain 14 August 1887, and Major 2 May 1895. He served in the South African War, May 1900 to May 1902, chiefly in the Kimberley and Mafeking Districts, but arrived too late for the sieges. He was Commanding Royal Engineer, Western District, Transvaal, from 4 October 1901 till the end of the war, and was engaged in constructing blockhouse lines along the railway, from Kimberley north as far as Gaberones, and a few across country. The greatest number of blockhouses erected in any one month was 375 (28 March to 28 April 1902), perhaps a record. He was present in operations in the Transvaal, west of Pretoria, and in Orange River Colony, July to 29 November 1900; operations in Cape Colony, north of Orange River, June to July 1900; operations in the Transvaal 30 November 1900 to March 1901, and October 1901 to 31 May 1902; operations in Orange River Colony 30 November 1900 to March 1901; operations in Cape Colony, March to October 1901. He was mentioned in Despatches 8 July 1902 [London Gazette, 17 June 1902], received the Queen's Medal with three clasps; the King's Medal with two clasps, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 26 June 1902]: "William Harry Turton, Major, Royal Engineers. In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa". Lieutenant Colonel Turton says: "I was never officially informed as to why I was awarded the DSO I do not think it was customary to do so in that war. But I have no doubt in my own mind that it was in consequence of my defence of Christiana, Transvaal, where I was in command from July 1900 to March 1901. At the request of the Editor, I wrote a short account of this for the 'Royal Engineers' Journal', July 1901, but of course it had to be censored, and some of the most interesting parts were omitted". He became Lieutenant Colonel 1 October 1902, and retired from the Service 4 October 1905. Lieutenant Colonel Turton was the author of a book called 'The Truth of Christianity' , which has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Chinese and Arabic. He was also the author of several hymns, one of which on the 'Sacrament of Unity' has been included in the 'Ancient and Modern', and at least a dozen other collections. He took an interest in genealogy and conchology.
Source: DSO recipients (VC and DSO Book) | Royal Engineers |
