John Walker Turnbull

Who was John Walker Turnbull?

John Walker Turnbull, was a lance corporal in the British 4th Royal Tank Regiment. He was the husband of the late Marion Jane Turnbull and the father of Aaron John Turnbull. He committed suicide after murdering his wife and the man with whom she was having an affair.

He was born in Durham, England, to British parents Jack and Jenny Turnbull. He was an apprentice welder alongside his father in his early teens. In his late teen years, he joined the British Army, and served for nine years. He left the Army after his posting in Osnabrück, moving back to Kent with his wife and son, where he worked as a heavy goods vehicle driver. In 1996, he was involved in a severe road accident, in which a large truck attempting to avoid hitting an animal in the road collided with Turnbull's vehicle. He barely survived the impact but was pulled from under the truck resting on top of his vehicle by a passing road user. After a period in hospital and surgery in which titanium plates were attached to fractured and broken bones, he underwent physiotherapy to regain partial use of a wrist, arm, leg and ankle that were badly damaged. Further surgery was performed to replace the original plates with permanent ones. During this time, Turnbull became an avid supporter of the Shooters' Rights Campaign which sought to prevent the British ban on hand guns, which eventually took effect in 1997 after the 1996 Dunblane massacre.