James Gordon Melville Turner GC (1907 – 5 November 1967) was a British merchant seaman. He was awarded the

Empire Gallantry Medal The Medal of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for Gallantry, known as the Empire Gallantry Medal (EGM), was a British medal awarded for acts of gallantry. Unlike the then existing Sea Gallantry Medal (SGM) (1854), the Albert Medal ...

(EGM) for actions on the cargo ship on 6 September 1939. The ship was one of the first British merchantmen sunk during the Second World War. The award of the EGM was gazetted on 13 October 1939, and the medal was exchanged for the

George Cross The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, has been ...

(GC) in 1943. Turner was also awarded the

Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea The Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea is one of the four Lloyd's Medal types bestowed by Lloyd's of London. In 1939, with the coming of the Second World War, Lloyd's set up a committee to find means of honouring seafarers who performed acts of e ...

, and a gold medal by the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society. Turner was the radio officer on SS ''Manaar'', a cargo steamer of built in 1917 and operated by the

Brocklebank Line The Brocklebank Line (formally named Thos. and Jno. Brocklebank) was an English shipping line that operated in the 19th and 20th centuries. Daniel Brocklebank founded a shipyard in Whitehaven in 1785, and expanded in the following years into ope ...

. En route from Liverpool to Calcutta, the vessel was attacked by the German submarine U-38 at , in the northern Atlantic Ocean about northwest of

Cape St Vincent Cape St. Vincent ( pt, Cabo de São Vicente, ) is a headland in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, in the Algarve, southern Portugal. It is the southwesternmost point of Portugal and of mainland Europe. History Cape St. Vincent was already sacr ...

and about west of

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. The merchant vessel returned fire, the first time that a merchantman had fired at a U-boat in the war. Turner remained at his post, sending an SOS. When most of the crew abandoned the stricken ship, Turner was accidentally left behind with two wounded crewmates, described in the medal citation as

lascar A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the 2 ...

s. He was ordered to escape to the master's boat, but refused to go until the two other crewmen had also been rescued. While under fire from U-38, Turner tried to launch two lifeboats, but one filled with water and the other was destroyed by enemy action with one of the wounded crew inside. He put the other man in the waterlogged boat, and they both escaped to the master's boat. U-38 sank ''Manaar'' with torpedoes. Seven of the 62 crew were killed, and survivors were rescued by the merchantmen , and . When a ship on which Turner subsequently sailed was also torpedoed he lost a leg, then spent the remainder of the war in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Turner survived the war, but was one of the 49 people killed in the

Hither Green rail crash On 5 November 1967, a busy Sunday evening train service from to derailed near the Hither Green maintenance depot in London, between and railway stations. Of the twelve coaches, many full of standing passengers, eleven were derailed and four ...

on Sunday 5 November 1967. At the time of his death, he was living in Staplecross in Sussex. He was survived by his wife and two children. A painting of Turner by Bernard Hailstone is in the

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, on display at the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

in London.

References

* "Courage Of Radio Operator." ''The Times'', 24 November 1939 * "Mr J. G. Turner." ''The Times'', 10 November 1967
EGM citation

EGM citation
London Gazette
SS Manaar
Wrecksite
Painting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, James Gordon Melville 1907 births 1967 deaths British recipients of the George Cross Recipients of the Empire Gallantry Medal Survivors of seafaring accidents or incidents British Merchant Navy personnel of World War II British Merchant Navy officers