Major-general Charles Turner (?11 March 1826) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer and colonial governor.

Career

Turner became an

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

in the

2nd (The Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Arm ...

on 21 October 1795. After promotion to lieutenant, he saw service in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and captured the Irish revolutionary

Napper Tandy James Napper Tandy (February 1739 – 24 August 1803) was a United Irishman who experienced exile, first in the United States and then in France, for his role in attempting to advance a republican insurrection in Ireland with French assistance. ...

. Refusing to accept the reward offered for Tandy's capture, on 8 June 1803 the British government instead presented Turner with a Company in the

Royal African Corps The Royal African Corps was an infantry unit in the British Army officially established on 25 April 1804. As Fraser’s Corps of Infantry, it had been earlier raised for the defense of the Island of Goree, Senegal in August 1800. The regiment was o ...

. He became a major in the Royal West India Rangers and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 28 May 1807. During the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

, Turner lost an arm at the Siege of Badajoz and retired on

half-pay Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Past usage United Kingdom In the Eng ...

on 25 December 1818. Turner was awarded the Portuguese Commander of the

Order of the Tower and Sword The Ancient and Most Noble Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of the Valour, Loyalty and Merit ( pt, Antiga e Muito Nobre Ordem Militar da Torre e Espada, do Valor, Lealdade e Mérito), before 1910 Royal Military Order of the Tower an ...

and the Turkish

Order of the Crescent The Imperial Order of the Crescent ( ota, نشانِ خلال) was a chivalric order of the Ottoman Empire. History The order was instituted in 1799 by Sultan Selim III when he wished to reward Horatio Nelson, an Anglican Christian, for his vi ...

Sierra Leone

Following the death of incumbent governor Charles MacCarthy in 1824 in the

First Anglo-Ashanti War The Anglo-Ashanti wars were a series of five conflicts that took place between 1824 and 1900 between the Ashanti Empire—in the Akan interior of the Gold Coast—and the British Empire and its African allies. Though the Ashanti emerged victorio ...

(1823-1831), Turner was commissioned as Captain-general and appointed as Governor-in-Chief of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

and its dependencies (including the Gold Coast). He arrived on the Cape Coast around the end of March 1825, along with 200 men of the Royal Africa Corps and 200 from the 2nd West India Regiment from Sierra Leone. In September 1825, Turner negotiated a treaty on behalf of the British government with the Sherbro people, Sherbro king, Banka. Under this treaty, the British acquired additional territory from the local tribespeople.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Charles 1826 deaths Governors of the Gold Coast (British colony) Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights of the Order of the Crescent Recipients of the Order of the Tower and Sword