Tuesday 12 May 2015

Turner, Robert - Private (11478)

Pte Robert Turner
75th Battalion,
Machine Gun Corps
Died 3rd of May 1919
Age 24

Buried at Cairo New Protestant Cemetery, Egypt


Pte Turner was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. James Turner of Grane. He was a single man, twenty-four years of age. He lived at home with his sisters Mary and Jessie.

 After enlisting in the East Lancashire Regiment Pte. Turner volunteered for the Machine Gun Corps. He was wounded in action in France in 1917 and on his recovery he was transferred to the 75th Battalion then serving in Palestine. (now Israel). He was in action there until September 1918. An armistice with Turkish forces came into force in October 1918 and the Battalion moved to Alexandria, Egypt.

On 26 March 1919 a much reduced Battalion (because of demobilisation) moved to Cairo. Whilst based there Pte. Turner became ill and later died in hospital of Phthisis, a form of Tubercolosis, and he was buried in Cairo New Protestant Cemetery. Cairo War Memorial Cemetery (as it was later renamed) is three miles (4.8 Kms) south of the city centre. During the war Cairo was the headquarters of the British garrison in Egypt. Throughout the war various city hospitals dealt with the sick and wounded from the battlefields in the Middle East. 

The cemetery register records 1,966 graves from the 1914-1919 period. Pte Turner lies in Row E, Grave 9.