Captain George Turnbull

George Turnbull was the son of George and Helen Mary Turnbull; husband of Dorothy Elsie Turnbull, of Southsea, Hampshire. He was granted a commission in the Royal Artillery and volunteered for airborne forces.

Captain Turnbull successfully completed parachute training at RAF Ringway on course number 69B from 21 June to 1 July 1943, and was posted to 12th (10th Battalion, The Green Howards [Yorkshire Regiment]) Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, and took part in Operation Overlord (Normandy).

Capt Turnbull was killed in action on 6 June 1944, aged 43, and was given a field burial in Amfreville, and was re-interred to Ranville War Cemetery, Calvados, France, on 20 June 1945.

Profile photo and further information  below kindly supplied by Sam Turnbull

George Turnbull (always known as “John” and sometimes “Jock) was the son of George and Helen Mary Turnbull; husband of Dorothy Elsie Turnbull, of Southsea, Hampshire.

Born in Jedburgh in 1900, George Turnbull’s first military experience was when he joined the British army aged just 16 in 1916 (having claimed to be 18). He saw service with a cavalry regiment (unknown) in Mesopotamia which is where he finished his service in the First World War.

For the next few years, he had a number of different jobs initially working his passage on a sailing ship to Australia where he spent some years droving cattle in the Northern Territory. He also spent some time in British Guiana involved in diamond mining, and then spent time in Egypt working on the Aswan dam.

In 1939, with the threat of war looming in Europe George Turnbull returned to England and volunteered for service and was granted a commission in the Royal Artillery.
In the summer of 1940, he joined No.2 (Parachute) Commando.

By the time No.2 (Parachute) Commando had transitioned through 11th Special Air Service (SAS) Battalion and then become 1st Parachute Battalion, George Turnbull was a Lieutenant. He served with the battalion when they travelled to North Africa as part of Operation Torch in November 1942. He was severely wounded in the chest during the fighting on Jebel Mansour in February 1943 – one of over 180 casualties.

Picked up from the battlefield by the Red Cross and shipped back to the UK, he had a period of convalescence before re-joining the Parachute Regiment with the 12th (10th BN. The Green Howards [Yorkshire Regt]) Battalion in September 1943 as a Captain and second-in-command of A company under Major Gerald Ritchie.

According to information supplied by Major Ritchie, when the battalion landed in the early hours of D-Day, George Turnbull linked up with a sergeant and two others and they were making their way to the quarry RV near Ranville when they ran into a German patrol. In the ensuing battle George Turnbull was killed – aged 43. He was given a field burial in Amfreville, and was re-interred to Ranville War Cemetery, Calvados, France, on 20 June 1945.

In Max Arthur’s book “Men of the Red Beret”, Major Tony Hibbert referred to George Turnbull as follows:
“Of the original stalwarts of 2 Commando who remained with the 1st Battalion, there were characters such as Jock Turnbull, who never slept in doors in his life. I shared a billet with him in Knutsford and even with feet of snow on the ground, he would always go outside with his sleeping bag and roll up on the lawn. You’d go out in the morning and all you would see was a little hump of snow. Tough as old boots and brave as a lion, he was.”

Sources:
Book: “Men of the Red Beret” - Max Arthur

Correspondence in 1997 with:

Major Gerald Ritchie (Retd)
Major John Sim (Retd)
Ernie Chinnery
Arthur Kellas

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