Lieut Ernest Turner 23 Squadron ?

[thedawnpatrol]

Came across this photo stating Ernest Turner, on the back……..any further info always appreciated

thank you

[Airshipped]

The references to 1917 and to Dolphins (which came long after the SPADs) would suggest a long-serving pilot with the squadron.

Although I can't seem to locate my copy of Fry's 'Air of Battle' I do recall that he tended to refrain from describing his squadron colleagues in any great detail. (If someone else can check their copy it might identify the Flight in which Turner served, if at all).

I do have Graham Broad's biography of Eddie McKay to hand, which covers much of the 1917 period, yet there's no sign of a Turner.

I wrote up some notes on Conn Standish O'Grady a good few years' ago. In passing I encountered an 'A.S. Turner' not an 'Ernest'. However, I believe him to be 'Arthur Sydney' Turner, and there's nothing to suggest that he was there long enough for the Dolphins. 

I'd therefore wonder if the reference on the photo to 'Ernest' is correct but that the reference to No. 23 Squadron is mistaken?

[pierssc]

Hmm I can't find a likely Ernest Turner on Airhistory as such. 

There is a Charles Ernest Turner (I have taken the first initial as a "C" though I thought initially it was a "K").

But the photo doesn't tie up with CE Turner's record AIR76/515/100 - this one had been a Captain in the 11th Worcestershire Regiment.  He was hospitalised in Aboukir in September 1918 (is that a lightweight uniform the chap in the photo is wearing?) but no way does he ever seem to have been a Flight Sgt.

The handwriting looks old though

Could he be Arthur Ernest Turner?, AIR 76/515/71.  He was an Observer with 7 Squadron in 1917 who seems to have come up through the ranks. But he was a 2nd Lieutenant Observer so you wouldn't expect him to be wearing pilot's Wings as an NCO.  Not him then.

There's an Ernest Turner born 1879 with AIR76/515/118 but it is a very thin record.  Looks like he just started training shortly before the end of the war.  May be connected to WO 372/20/101112 (Essex Regiment and RFC) for which there is a MIC but it doesn't look right.

There's TWO Ernest Fredericks but both were RNAS.

There's an Ernest W but not apparently a pilot.

There's a Percy Ernest - another Observer AIR 76/516/40

I have found a BE Turner (no first names specified but possibly Bertram Eric) via Casualtyforms who comes tantalisingly close.  He had been Gunner No 96333 with MMGS who became a temporary 2/Lt with the RFC in December 1917 in Egypt.  He qualified to wear wings in Aboukir on 3rd January 1918 at which point he was (it says) with 23 Sq.  But this actually seems to be 23 Reserve Sq which isn't the same thing.  And he wouldn't have been wearing stripes at that point as he was an officer by that time  he got his wings.  And how did he get through the system so quickly?  And he's not an Ernest.

So that exhausts the Ernest Turners on Airhistory.  Which doesn't mean Ernest Turner didn't exist, rather that he may not have been promoted until late in the war and may have continued to serve after it, in which case his records will be closed.

 

[thedawnpatrol]

Thank you both, a bit of a mystery then………..you knever know if notes on the back of photos are correct

[josquin]

It is likely that the forename, initials, and the squadron attribution are all in error.  Another possibility is Major Lewis William Francis Turner, a prewar aviator who

attested in 1914 (R.F.C. service number 1369), qualified for a Royal Aero Club pilot certificate, was posted to 16 Squadron in France on 7 May 1915, was on the

casualty list on 6 August 1915 (due to "neurasthenia," the term of that era for "shellshock" or PTSD), and served for the rest of the war as an instructor, training

commander, and aircraft park commander.  His Medal Index Card (WO 372/20/107276) confirms that he was a Major in the R.F.C. and R.A.F.  Turner survived

the war and was placed on the Unemployed List in 1919.  He has two service records at the National Archives, Air 76/516/29 (R.A.F. Officer) and Air 79/18/1369

(R.F.C. NCO/Other Ranks).  Turner was from Blandford, Dorset; birthdate 7 January 1884; an engineering apprentice for 2 years prior to employment in

aviation beginning in 1911. 

Josquin