Forename: Harry

Surname: Turner

Rank: Stoker 1st Class

Regiment: Royal Navy

Institution: St Paul’s Practising School


Harry Turner was the twin of Edward Turner, both attending the Practising School from 1888. They were born on 20 February 1881, the son of a sweep Charles Edward Turner.

Both were 1st Class Stokers in the Royal Navy and both had fought during the Boxer Rebellion in China at the turn of the twentieth century. Harry and Edward were serving on the HMS Good Hope when they were killed at the battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile, on 1 November 1914, when their ship blew up and sank. Both are commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial. Between them they left 2 widows and 8 children living in Gloucester. They died on the same day and during the same battle as fellow Practising School pupil Reginald Arthur Pigott.