Family War Heroes - John Frank Turner (G/20296)

It is Spring 1918.  The Western Front has been largely quiet for months, a stalemate between the British and German trenches that seems destined never to be broken.  Down inside the British trench, Sergeant John Frank Turner, of the 8th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, sits on an rotten ammunition box.  Maybe he is eating a slice of stale bread.  Maybe he's cleaning his muddy boots.  Maybe he's writing a letter to his parents John and Eliza.  Maybe he's just thinking.  Maybe he wants to go home.  He is part of a battalion that has, since 1916, witnessed horrendous action, including the Battle of the Somme and the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).  Now it is 1918, and the 8th Sussex Regiment is on the Somme front once again.

A platoon of the 8th Royal Sussex Regiment, Belgium, 1917.  John Frank Turner would have fought with these men on the Western Front, and may even be in this photograph. (source: greatwarphotos.com)

It is Spring 1918, and gunfire can be heard across No Man's Land.  Whistles become louder, artillery fire, the shouts - they might be British, or is it the Boche that John Frank can hear as he picks up his rifle, hands shaking as he receives the bellowed orders of his captain.  "Take aim, fire... they're coming at you now, closer with every second.  Hold your position, don't run, don't be scared, there's no time for fear, it's for God, for right, and for King George after all."

It is Spring 1918, and just hours into the German Spring Offensive that began on 21 March, and would last for four months, John Frank Turner is lying dead in the French mud.  He is a mere statistic in the book of war - just one of over 995,000 British servicemen killed between 1914 and 1918, one of over 16 million who died on all sides during the "War to End All Wars."  

A German tank in Roye, 21 March, 1918 (source: Wikipedia).

The church bells ring.  Those who have survived go home.  Every person in the country - probably every person across the continent - knows somebody who has died.  In every city, town and village, memorials are raised.  In little villages, they recall the names of a handful who gave their lives, whilst in the larger cities, thousands are listed.  In Woking, Surrey, they do the same, and remember over 500 of their sons, including the grocer, John Frank Turner, who lived with his parents on Butts Road, near the railway station.  John never came home, but if he had, he would not only have been able to wear the Victory Medal and British War Medal, but also the Military Medal, awarded to him for acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire or individual or associated acts of bravery which were insufficient to merit the Distinguished Conduct Medal.  Conferment of the medal would have given John Frank the right to add the letters M.M. after his name.

Woking war memorial (Source: Window on Woking)

The Military Medal (Source: Wikipedia)

John Frank Turner's body was never recovered.  Like thousands of others, he was left in the mud, returned to the earth upon which, that sad summer, a host of poppies would iconically flourish.  In addition to the Woking War Memorial, he is remembered on the Pozieres Memorial, which stands in the Pozieres war cemetery between Amiens and Cambrai, France.  John Frank's connection to me is through his younger brother Reginald Turner, who was my great-grandfather.

John Frank Turner's Forces Record

First Name:  John Frank
Initials: J F
Surname: Turner
DOB: Circa 1892
Age: 26
Resided Town: Kingston-On-Thames, Surrey
Nationality: British
Date of Death: 21/03/1918
Fate: Killed in Action
Information: ELDEST SON OF MR, AND MRS. J. TURNER OF 6 BUTTS RD., WOKING, SURREY
Rank: Serjeant
Service Number: G/20296
Gallantry Awards: Military Medal
Duty Location: France and Flanders
Campaign Medals: Victory Medal, British War Medal