Geoffrey Turner

Who was Geoffrey Turner?

Geoffrey Gledhill Turner GC, GM, Sub-Lieutenant of the RNVR is one of only eight people who have won both the George Cross and George Medal for gallantry.

Turner was born in Sheffield on 10 September 1903 the eldest son of Charles Turner a Chartered Accountant and his wife Kathleen. Turner attended King Edward VII School in Sheffield from 1911 to 1921.

He was responsible for defusing a succession of unexploded bombs and mines during the Blitz in Yorkshire and Lancashire. He was awarded his George Cross for tackling a bomb which fell on Seaforth, near Liverpool-Stockport railway line. The fuse was badly damaged and exploded while Turner was attempting to remove it, wounding him. Notice of his award appeared in the London Gazette on 27 June 1941. The citation in the London Gazette reads: "for great gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty".

He won the George Medal for recovering a mine from a German plane which had been shot down at Fairlight, near Hastings in Sussex. The citation was published in the London Gazette on 18 May 1943.