Reginald Turnill
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Reginald George Turnill (12 May 1915 – 12 February 2013)
Nigel Fountain Nigel Christopher Fountain (born 1944) is a British writer, journalist, editor and broadcaster. He has been a contributor to many publications including ''The Guardian'', ''The Observer'', ''The Sunday Times'', ''New Statesman'', '' The Oldie'', ...

"Obituary: Reginald Turnill"
''The Guardian'', 12 February 2013. was the BBC's aviation (and space) correspondent for twenty years during the beginnings of crewed
space exploration Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by robotic spacec ...
and the early jet age in aviation, including the breakthrough in supersonic passenger flight represented by
Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...
. He covered
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's space missions and all the Apollo program moon missions for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. Turnill's connection with the BBC, as a freelance, continued for some years after his official retirement.


Career

Reginald Turnill began his career at the age of 15 as a reporter's telephonist at the
Press Association PA Media (formerly the Press Association) is a multimedia news agency, and the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is part of PA Media Group Limited, a private company with 26 shareholders, most of whom are national and re ...
, the British news agency, becoming a reporter by 1935."Obituary: Reginald Turnill"
telegraph.co.uk, 12 February 2013. After war service as a machine gunner in the Middlesex Regiment, and as a warrant officer reporting courts martial for the Judge Advocate General's department in Naples, he returned to the Press Association in 1946, where he remained until his recruitment by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in 1956 as assistant industrial correspondent. In 1958 he became the Corporation's Air and Space Correspondent, with a brief to include defence as well. He was not a War correspondent; he concentrated on technology. He became friendly with
Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
, who was only three years older, although his approach was initially frosty and reticent. He covered all the crewed spaceflights as well as the introduction of passenger jets from the Comet IV to
Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...
. On 2 March 1969 he was the BBC's reporter on
Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...
's maiden flight at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport. In April 1970, he was the first journalist to report on the
Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted aft ...
catastrophe via the
BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
when based at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center on 13 April 1970. After retiring from the BBC staff on his 60th birthday he continued working as a freelance broadcaster, writing many books and continuing as ''
Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'', and originally called ''John Craven's Newsround'' before his departure in 1989) is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. It was one of the world's first televi ...
s Space Editor until the mid-1980s. In 1990 he presented ''Return Ticket'', a five-part Radio 4 series about the Apollo 13 mission. He was largely superseded at the BBC by Christopher Wain.


Writer

He contributed to series of books notably the ''Observer's Book of Manned Spaceflight'' and the '' Observer's Book of Unmanned Spaceflight'' in the 1970s, published by
Frederick Warne & Co Frederick Warne & Co. is a British publisher founded in 1865. It is known for children's books, particularly those of Beatrix Potter, and for its Observer's Books. Warne is an imprint of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media cong ...
. In the 1980s he edited the ''
Jane's Jane's Information Group, now styled Janes, is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane. History Jane's Informatio ...
Spaceflight Directory''. He was particularly disappointed by the cancellation of the
Black Arrow Black Arrow, officially capitalised BLACK ARROW, was a British satellite carrier rocket. Developed during the 1960s, it was used for four launches between 1969 and 1971, all launched from the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia. Its final flig ...
British space programme The British space programme is the British government's work to develop British space capabilities. The objectives of the current civil programme are to "win sustainable economic growth, secure new scientific knowledge and provide benefits to a ...
in July 1971, at the very moment it was providing results. In 2003 he published his book 'The Moonlandings, An eyewitness account' in which he recounted how and why the first men landed on the moon. Turnill wrote many obituaries of people involved in aerospace and other figures for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' and ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'', the last to appear during his lifetime being of Sir James Hamilton, who helped design Concorde's wing. It appeared in ''The Guardian'' in May 2012. Following a few months of poor health Turnill died aged 97 at the Pilgrim's Hospice in Ashford, Kent, on 12 February 2013. In 2006 he won the
Sir Arthur Clarke Award The Sir Arthur Clarke Award is a British award given annually since 2005 in recognition of notable contributions to space exploration, particularly British achievements. Nominations for the awards are made by members of the public, with shortlis ...
Lifetime Achievement Award.


Personal life

He married Margaret Hennings in 1938 in Westminster. They have two sons (born 1940 and 1944). He lived in
Sandgate, Kent Sandgate is a village in the Folkestone and Hythe Urban Area in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. It had a population of 4,225 at the 2001 census. In his early life, the 18th century poet
John Clare John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th ce ...
had a great affection for the brothers John and Richard Turnill, whose father Robert was a local farmer; Robert was Reg's great-great-grandfather. In his Autobiographical ''Fragments'', Clare says: Clare goes on to say: So the young John Turnill liked books, the stars and was of a generous nature. Clare dedicated a sonnet to him: Turnill, we toiled together all the day, And lived like hermits from the boys at play; We read and walked together round the fields, Not for the beauty that the journey yields – But muddied fish, and bragged o'er what we caught, And talked about the few old books we bought. Though low in price you knew their value well, And I thought nothing could their worth excel; And then we talked of what we wished to buy, And knowledge always kept our pockets dry. We went the nearest ways, and hummed a song, And snatched the pea pods as we went along, And often stooped for hunger on the way To eat the sour grass in the meadow hay.


Publications

* ''The Moonlandings: An Eyewitness Account'' (foreword by
Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...
), 2002,
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, * ''Celebrating Concorde'', 1994,
Ian Allan Publishing Ian Allan Publishing was an English publisher, established in 1942, which specialised in transport books. It was founded by Ian Allan. In 1942 Ian Allan, then working in the public relations department for the Southern Railway at Waterloo st ...
, * ''Farnborough: the Story of the RAE'' (with Arthur Reed), 1981, Hale Publishing, * ''The Language of Space: A Dictionary of Astronautics'', 1970, Littlehampton Book Services, * ''Moonslaught: The full story of Man's race to the Moon'', 1969,
Purnell and Sons Purnell and Sons started out as a small family printers based in Somerset which merged with other printers over the next 100 years to become one the largest print groups in the UK and at one time a major publisher. History The company was found ...
* ''Jane's Spaceflight Directory'' (edited by Reginald Turnill), various editions during the 1980s, * ''Astronautics'', 1970, Littlehampton Book Services, * ''Observer's Book of Manned Spaceflight'', 1972, Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd, ASIN B0055OFWQ8 * ''Observer's Book of Unmanned Spaceflight'', 1974, Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd, ,


See also

*
Jay Barbree Jay Barbree (November 26, 1933 – May 14, 2021) was an American correspondent for NBC News, focusing on space travel. He was the only journalist to have covered every non-commercial human space mission in the United States, beginning with th ...


References


External links


BBC Archive

The Eagle has Landed

Interview on Astrotalkuk.org
in April 2008


Video clips


Discussing Apollo 13 in April 2010

An interview about Yuri Gagarin's first international news conference in Moscow on 14 April 1961. Reg was present for the BBC.
Astrotalkuk.org April 2011


Audio clips


Concorde's maiden flight in March 1969
on BBC School Radio {{DEFAULTSORT:Turnill, Reg 1915 births 2013 deaths Aviation in the United Kingdom Aviation journalists Aviation writers BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC World Service History of spaceflight People from Dover, Kent Space advocates People from Sandgate, Kent Military personnel from Kent Middlesex Regiment soldiers British Army personnel of World War II