8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Oliver John Turner was born in 1890 at Hawling, near Andoversford, Gloucestershire and records show that he was baptised there on 9 November 1890.
He was the son of John Kilby Turner (an agricultural worker) and his wife Elizabeth. The 1911 Census records that they had seven children (three sons and four daughters) of whom six were living at the time of the census. In 1911 the family lived at Aston Farm, Bourton-on-the-Water and Oliver was a farm labourer, like his father.
No Army Service Record has survived for Private Turner and therefore we do not know the date when he joined the Army. However, we do know that he went to the Western Front on 9 August 1915, with the 10th Battalion of the Glosters, after time spent training on Salisbury Plain and in billets at Cheltenham.
His name is included as being wounded in the casualty list published in Gloucestershire Echo of 23 October 1915. He is also reported as being wounded in a casualty list published in the Gloucestershire Echo on 22 November 1916. It is not known when he transferred to the 8th Gloucesters: this may have been following his recovery from wounding or when the 10th Gloucesters were disbanded, as part of the re-organisation of infantry battalions in February 1918.
He appears to have been discharged from the Army into the Reserve on 16 March 1919 and died in the Northleach district of Gloucestershire on 28 June 1919; he was 29 years old. The cause of death was heart disease.
His Pension Record Card (made available via the Ancestry website in late 2018) states this was the reason for the award of a pension and that the condition had been aggravated by military service.
His 100% disability pension commenced on 17 March 1919.
On 13 December 1921 the Gloucestershire Echo reported that a faculty had been granted to place a memorial on the west wall of the nave of the parish church at Turkdean. The inscription reads In memory of Oliver John Turner, of Turkdean and 1/5 Gloucestershire Regiment who died in the Great War 28 June 1919 age 28 years.
The date of death was, of course, post Armistice but not before the war had officially ended and is an indicator that his death was a direct consequence of his military service.
No evidence has come to light to show that he ever served in the 1/5th Glosters (a Territorial battalion); possibly he transferred to them following the Armistice but the CWGC Register states that he served in the 8th Battalion.
Private Oliver John Turner was buried in Turkdean (All Saints) Churchyard, where a CWGC headstone now marks his grave.
Research by Graham Adams 25 January 2019 (revised 10 August 2021)