ROBERT HENRY TURNER
Living on Saxe-Weimar Road at the outbreak of the Great War must have presented residents with a disturbing experience given the fervant anti-German mood of the time. Strangely, the Borough Council seemed slow to recognise the possibility of an issue for the residents as they didn't re-designate the thoroughfare as part of Waverley Road until 1916. In the interim period it would not have been surprising if some residents chose to move elsewhere. We don't know if Robert Henry's father, also know as Robert Henry, made such a decision but we know he moved the family to Victoria Road North around this time.
Robert Henry snr. was not from Portsmouth, but was born in Scarborough in 1860, into what seems to have been a very musical family. According to the 1881 Census, his mother Harriett was a Pianoforte Dealer and Music Seller, his older brother Alfred was a Music Teacher and his younger brother Herbert was a Choir Master whilst Robert Henry was an undergraduate at Cambridge studying music. Robert's late father, another Robert, apparently led the way by being a Professor of Music.
By 1897 Robert Henry snr. had left the household and that year married Elizabeth Adrianna Cornelia who had been born in Holland in 1868 and later the same year Robert Henry was born. Around the same time the family moved to Dundee where his brothers Harold Percy and Pieter Cornelius were born and then in 1901 they moved again, this time to 6 Pelham Road in Southsea where Robert snr. had a job as Organist and Music Teacher. By 1911 they had made the move to 67 Saxe-Weimar Road where two daughters were born - Catherine Louisa and Elfreda Margaret.
The year before the census Robert Henry had begun attendance at the Secondary School on Victoria Road North, passing directly into the Second Year's Course from the Philological School. After entering fully into the life of the school he completed the Matriculation Examination of London University in 1913 and left the School to become a student at the Portsmouth Municipal College, where he obtained the Intermediate Science qualification before war broke out.
He was commissioned and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Lincoln Regiment, and went to France in 1916. In 1917 he received a bullet wound in the head but made a perfect recovery and soon returned to the Front. On March 21st, 1918, he was severely wounded in the side and died on March 23rd, 1918. His Colonel wrote of him :-" He was a very gallant officer and endeared himself to both officers and men by his cheery and kindly manner. He is a great loss to the regiment." Lieutenant R. H. Turner was not quite 21 years of age at the time of his death.
Further Information
The photograph above is taken from a memorial booklet published by Southern Grammar School from which extracts also appear above.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website lists Lieutenant Robert Henry Turner, 5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, date of death, 23/03/1918. Buried at Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension (Grave Ref: III.J.77.). Son of Robert Henry Turner, M.A., Mus. Bac., F.R.C.O., and Elizabeth Adriana Cornelia Turner, of 69, Victoria Rd. North, Southsea, Portsmouth.
Robert Turner is remembered on the Southern Grammar School WW1 Memorial, the Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral WW1 Memorial Cross and on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War'