A lone airman of the Royal Flying Corps

A passing comment regarding the lone military grave of an airman of the Royal Flying Corps which is due to be relocated due to building work at a local church, stirred my interest to know more about this solitary man. Who could he be and why was he interred in a small sleepy church yard in Bentley on the boarders of Hampshire and Surrey.

It seemed as though this could make another interesting addition to the Royal Flying Corps display at the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust museum, which includes recording members of that fore runner of the Royal Air Force.
I quickly found records of him listed on the Australian forces nominal roll  his transfer to the RFC & finally his death, but then a real piece of luck, from an Australian web site "Connecting Spirits". Connecting Spirits is a project that involves Australian students travelling to the World War 1 battlefields, cemeteries and memorials of France and Belgium to learn first hand the role that Australians played in the battles of  WW1 and to understand the sacrifices made.

And what luck this grave had been one visited by a member of this group of young people and what follows is an illustration of bravery, commitment, adventure and in this case luck that finally ran out.

Name: Richard (George) Turner

Rank: 2nd Lieutenant

Service Number: 106 (AIF)

Units Served: 2nd Battalion AIF; Army Ordnance Corps; 37th and 47th Reserve Squadrons, Royal Flying Corps.

Richard George Turner, whose preferred name was George, was born on the 30th January, 1894 in Jamestown, South Australia, to parents Sydney and Louisa. He attended primary school in Jamestown before completing most of his high schooling at Gladstone, but moved back to Jamestown in 1910 to complete his schooling. After finishing school he worked as a bank clerk for the Union Bank, working in branches at Laura, Melrose, Port Pirie, Adelaide, Port Adelaide, and Port Elliot before transferring to Sydney. He was a member of the Church of England and had served in both school cadets and the militia.

George enlisted  in the AIF on the 21st August 1914 in Sydney at the age of 20 years and 6 months. He was 5’6 ½” tall, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and fair hair. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion.

George left Australia from Sydney on the 18th October aboard the “HMAT Suffolk”. He was part of the first landing on Anzac Day at Gallipoli and was wounded the following day with a gunshot wound to the leg. He was evacuated to Alexandria to recover but returned to Gallipoli on the 18th May and was made a stretcher bearer on the 18th July. He remained on Gallipoli until the evacuation. After returning to Alexandria he was transferred to the Australian Ordnance Corps on the 4th March 1916 and the following day transferred to the Deputy Assistant Director of Ordnance Services for clerical duties. He returned to the 2nd Battalion in time to leave Egypt on the 22nd March arriving in Marseilles on the 28th. He was then promoted to corporal on the 18th April, and was again transferred to DADOS at the 1st Divisional Headquarters on the same day. He moved between the 2nd Brigade HQ and 1st Div HQ over the next 6 months but obviously did not wish to continue with clerical duties as he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on the 8th November 1916. He marched in to Bracenose College in Oxford for flight training on the 26th January 1917 and received his commission on the 16th March. He continued his training at Scampton near Lincoln. He completed 22 hrs and 40 mins of solo flying time, mostly in an aircraft known as a “Shorthorn” before crashing on the 4th May. George was killed in this accident, and a board of inquiry found it to be due to “a lack of judgment on the pilot’s behalf in causing the machine to get into a spinning nose dive on a turn”. He would normally have been buried at Scampton, but during his training in England he had befriended some elderly cousins of his father who lived in Farnham. These ladies lobbied the Royal Flying Corps, the railways, the police and the church to have his body released from the Flying Corps so that he could be buried in Bentley with his ancestors.

Age at Death: 23

Cemetery : BENTLEY (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD, Hampshire

 If you know of anyone who served in the RFC and think their story should be  recorded for posterity or would just like their name and image to be recorded in our growing collection please get in touch with me at:    igf@royalflyingcorps.info

These early airmen Pilots, Mechanics, officers and other ranks deserve to be remembered.