Four: Captain C. E. Turner, Royal Air Force, late 11th Worcestershire Regiment

1914-15 Star (Lieut. C. E. Turner, Worc. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. C. E. Turner, R.A.F.); France, Croix de Guerre 1914-1916, with bronze palm, mounted as worn, together with another Great War pair, believed to be related in some manner (282949 3.A.M. W. J. Driver, R.A.F.) nearly extremely fine (6) £200-250 £220-260

French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 1 May 1917.

Charles Ernest Turner was born on 24 June 1895, and educated at Emanuel School, serving in the school O.T.C. He was appointed a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the 11th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment on 9 December 1914 - the battalion being mainly recruited from the north of the county. He was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant in August 1915, and Temporary Captain in August 1917. He proceeded to France with “A” Company, 11th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment in September 1915. After a period of training and a short period of front line service on the western front , the battalion was transferred to Salonika; leaving Marseilles in November aboard the pre-dreadnaughts Mars and Magnificent. They arrived in time to take position as part of the 78th Brigade on the Derbend Ridge to the west of the Langaza Lake. In the autumn of 1916, the battalion formed part of the force operating in hilly country before the small town of Doiran to the N.W. of Salonika. On 9 October orders were received to make a small raid against a Bulgarian held hill nick-named the ‘Mamelon’ to the S.W. of Doiran, with the object of gathering prisoners and identifying the troops in position there. The raiding party of 30 men was led by Captain P. A. Leicester and Lieutenant C. E. Turner. In the late afternoon the party pushed forward to the slopes of the ‘Mamelon’ and getting to within a short distance from the enemy trench they charged. Met by bombs and rifle-fire from double their number they were forced back to take cover. In the initial action a Private J. W. Rudd was killed and Captain Leicester and two other men were wounded. Taking stock of the situation, and believing the missing Rudd to be only wounded, Lieutenant Turner accompanied by Private W. Hartland bravely went back to recover him. Finding him dead within a few yards of the enemy trench they then returned to the rest of their party, running the gauntlet of enemy fire as they did so. For their gallant conduct in this action, Captain Leicester was awarded the Italian Al Valore Militare in silver, Lieutenant Turner the French Croix de Guerre, and Private Hartland the British Military Medal. On 15 October the battalion was moved back to the reserve trenches, moving back to the front line on 8 November. On 11 November 1916, whilst at the front in the vicinity of Doiran, Lieutenant Turner received a wound from shell-fire to his right arm. As a result he was invalided to England in February 1917 aboard the hospital ship Panama. He was discharged from Lady Cooper’s Hospital, Hursley Park, on 24 March 1916. He resigned his commission on appointment to the Royal Air Force on 31 July 1918.

Sold with 10 copied pages from his National Archives Correspondence File; also with extracts from the Regimental History. The vendor states that the pair to Driver was acquired in the same box as the group to Turner from an antique dealer many years ago who stated that they were in some manner connected or related to one another.