Auction Catalogue

17 September 2004

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 1407

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17 September 2004

Hammer Price:
£100

A quantity of original documentation appertaining to Surgeon Wing Commander (Surgeon) H. M. Stanley Turner, M.B.E., Royal Air Force, late Major, Falkland Islands Defence Force, including assorted notebooks (5), largely unused, one inscribed to him as a Major, R.A.F., and three as a Wing Commander, but the earliest, a white vellum bound book, as ‘Major H. M. Stanely Turner, Falkland Islands’; an old leather wallet similarly inscribed; together with four letters from the Office of the Colonial Secretary, Stanley, Falklands Islands, dating from the period February to December 1910, all addressed to ‘Dr. H. M. Stanley Turner, Fox Bay, West Falkland’, and discussing the merits of establishing a local wireless telegraphy system; an interesting selection of career photographs (approximately 35); and a Life Member’s Pass for the National Rifle Association, inscribed to ‘Wing Cdr. H. M. Stanley Turner, M.B.E., F.R.S. (E.)’, generally in good condition (Lot)
£80-120

Stanley Turner, who studied medicine at Durham University and Guy’s Hospital, qualified in 1899 and gained appointment as Registrar at the Central London Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital. According to his obituary in the British Medical Association Journal, he was ‘of an adventurous disposition’, and ‘while he was a student he had taken part in the Graeco-Turkish War and been made a Knight of the Royal Order of Saviour of Greece for his services.’ The same obituary continues:

‘About 1910 he went out to the Falkland Islands as an assistant surgeon, and within a few years he was taking a leading part there in local government. He became a Justice of the Peace, President of the Board of Health, and Deputy Governor. In addition, he joined the West Falkland Mounted Infantry, and at the time the German fleet put into the Falklands Islands near the beginning of the First World War, he was in command, with the rank of Major, of the Falklands Islands Defence Force. The German fleet was later defeated by Admiral Sturdee’s squadron, and for his valuable work in organizing the defences of the islands Stanely Turner was awarded the M.B.E.’

He went on to serve in France with the 47th and 58th Divisions but in October 1918 he transferred to the Royal Air Force, and went to Egypt as Principal Medical Officer at Middle East H.Q., where he played a valuable role in Egyptian medical affairs. Having been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1925, Stanley Turner returned home two years later and was placed on the R.A.F. Retired List. Thereafter, he went into private practice, but remained a prominent member of the B.M.A. in addition to serving on a number of R.N., Military and R.A.F. medical committees in the 1930s. ‘One of a fast disappearing generation’ and ‘a very likeable personality’, the Wing Commander died in February 1951.