Lieutenant General Sir Richard Ernest William Turner, (25 July 1871 – 19 June 1961) was a senior Canadian Army officer who served during the Second Boer War and the First World War, and was a recipient of the Victoria Cross. While Turner always displayed great personal courage while under fire, he lacked the acumen for brigade- and division-sized tactics, and the men under his command during the First World War suffered grievous losses in several battles before he was moved into administrative roles.
Early life
Turner was born in Quebec City, the son of Richard Turner, and worked at his father's grocery and lumber business, rising to partner before the First World War. He later took over the business, when he returned from the War. Turner joined the militia as a second lieutenant in 1892, his regiment of choice for commissioning being the Queen's Own Canadian Hussars.
Boer War
Turner was 29 years old and a major in the Militia cavalry regiment the 10th Queen's Own Canadian Hussars when he joined the second Canadian contingent to the Second Boer War. He reverted to lieutenant to join The Royal Canadian Dragoons, Canadian Army. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) with effective date 29 November 1900 for his actions at the Vet River on 6 May 1900.
On 7 November 1900, during a desperate rearguard action at the Leliefontein near the Komati River, Turner and Lieutenant Hampden Cockburn commanded a small group of men who repulsed a large force of Boers at close range, allowing two field guns to escape capture. Following the action, Turner and Cockburn were two of three men from their regiment who were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery. (The other was Sergeant Edward James Gibson Holland.)
Turner was Mentioned in Despatches on 16 April 1901, and the VC citations were published in the London Gazette on 23 April 1901. Turner's read:
He received the VC from the Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V) during a grand military review in Quebec 17 September 1901, the second day of the visit to Canada of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York during their Commonwealth tour. His Victoria Cross is currently stored as part of the RCD Archives and Collection at CFB Petawawa, Ontario.
Pre-war service
Turner was in command of a contingent of Canadian troops present in London for the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra on 9 August 1902.
First World War
Promoted to brigadier general just after the outbreak of war on 29 September 1914, Turner was given command of the 3rd Brigade in the 1st Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His Brigade Major was Colonel Garnet Hughes, son of Sam Hughes, the bombastic Minister of Militia and Defence in Robert Borden's government.
The 1st Division spent the winter of 1914–15 training in England, and were sent to France in February 1915. After a period of indoctrination about the realities of trench warfare, they took control of a section of trench in the Ypres Salient on 17 April 1915. Only five days later, the Germans used poison gas for the first time on the Western Front, sending clouds of chlorine wafting over the Allied trenches. French colonial troops on the Canadians' left flank broke, leaving an enormous hole in the Allied line.
In the chaos that followed, both Turner and Hughes sent erroneous messages back to Lieutenant General Edwin Alderson at divisional headquarters that their line had been broken and was in full retreat, when in fact the 3rd Brigade had not even been attacked yet. Turner was also responsible for sending two reserve battalions forward in a night-time attack on Kitcheners Wood, although he left the details to his subordinate Hughes. Much of the subsequent high casualty rate during the attack can be attributed to Hughes and his insistence on an immediate attack before proper reconnaissance could reveal the presence of enfilading machine gun nests. Although Turner demonstrated great personal bravery when his brigade headquarters came under direct small arms fire and suffered several near misses from artillery, he seemed unable to adequately cope with this new type of mechanized warfare nor with the demands of brigade-sized tactics.