Frederick Harding Turner

{{short description|Scotland international rugby union player}} {{Other uses|Frederick Turner (disambiguation){{!}}Fred Turner}} {{distinguish|Freddy Turner}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use British English|date=April 2017}} {{Infobox rugby biography | name = Frederick Turner | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Frederick Harding Turner | birth_date = {{birth date|1890|01|10|df=y}} | birth_place = Liverpool, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1916|07|01|1890|01|10|df=y}} | death_place = Kemmelberg, Belgium | height = | weight = | university = Trinity College, Oxford | position = Flanker | amatyears1 = | amatteam1 = Oxford University | ru_amateurclubcaps = | ru_amateurclubpoints = | province1 = Whites Trial

| provinceyears1 = 1911 | provinceapps1 = | provincepoints1 = | repyears1 = 1911-14 | repteam1 = Scotland | repcaps1 = 15 | reppoints1 = 37 | module = {{Infobox military person |embed=yes |allegiance = {{UK}} |branch = {{Army|UK}} |service_years = |rank = |unit = |commands = |battles = Battle of the Somme |burial_place = |burial_coordinates = |mawards =  |memorials = }} }}

'''Frederick Harding Turner''' (29 May 1888 – 10 January 1915) was a Scotland international rugby union player.

==Rugby Union career==

===Amateur career===

Turner was educated at Sedbergh and Trinity College, Oxford.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ourfc.org/NewsItem.aspx?ID=2603 |title=Frederick Harding Turner Remembered |publisher=Oxford University RFC |access-date=7 April 2017 |archive-date=9 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009152048/http://www.ourfc.org/NewsItem.aspx?ID=2603 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He played for Oxford University, and Liverpool.

===Provincial career===

He played for the Whites Trial side against the Blues Trial side on 21 January 1911 while still with Oxford University.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000576/19110123/110/0009 |title= |newspaper= |location= |page= |issue= |date= |url-access=subscription |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref>

===International career===

He was capped 15 times for {{nrut|Scotland}} in 1911–14, becoming captain of the squad in 1914.<ref name=Bath1/> Turner was a back-row forward, who had taken the kicks in the last match before the war: a Calcutta Cup match at Inverleith (Edinburgh), which Scotland lost 15–16.<ref name=Scotsman/> James Huggan and John George Will also played in this match.<ref name=Scotsman/> He also played first-class cricket, for the Oxford University Cricket Club.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33450/33450.html CricketArchive]</ref>

==Military career==

He was killed in World War I<ref name=Bath1>Bath, p109</ref> in the trenches near Kemmel on 10 January 1915 in a trench occupied by his platoon of the Liverpool Scottish when overseeing the organisation of a barbed wire entanglement.<ref name=Scotsman>[http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/sport/An-entire-team-wiped-out.5804230.jp An entire team wiped out by the Great War] (''The Scotsman'')</ref><ref>[http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2938615 CWGC]</ref>

He is buried in an isolated plot in Kemmel churchyard, not in one of the larger Commonwealth cemeteries. He was buried in the Kemmel churchyard next to Percy Dale Kendall who captained England in 1903. His grave was prepared by Dr Noel Chavasse VC and Bar, MC, who also died at Ypres in August 1917. The battlefield consumed both graves and Kendal and Turner's remains have never been found. [2]

==References== * Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'' (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 {{ISBN|1-905326-24-6}}) {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2938615 Commonwealth War Graves database] * [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/sport/An-entire-team-wiped-out.5804230.jp An entire team wiped out by the Great War] (''The Scotsman'') {{WWI Scottish rugby fatalities}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Frederick}} Category:1888 births Category:1915 deaths Category:Scottish rugby union players Category:Scotland international rugby union players Category:British military personnel killed in World War I Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:King's Regiment (Liverpool) officers Category:Scottish cricketers Category:Oxford University cricketers Category:People educated at Sedbergh School Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Category:Whites Trial players Category:Rugby union players from Liverpool Category:Rugby union flankers Category:Military personnel from Liverpool Category:Oxford University RFC players