Lt. Col Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the army, armies, most Marine (armed services), marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use t ...

Walter Martin Fitzherbert Turner (4 April 1881 – 1 February 1948) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He played for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

between 1899 and 1911, and the

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...

. A 'strong driver and cutter' his cricketing career covered 27 seasons when on leave from military service.

Life

Walter Martin Fitzherbert Turner was born on 4 April 1881 at Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, the son of Major J.T. Turner who himself played cricket for Hong Kong and lost his life returning to Hong Kong from a match in Shanghai on board the ''

SS Bokhara The SS ''Bokhara'' was a P&O steamship which sank in a typhoon on 10 October 1892, off the coast of Sand Island in the Pescadores, Formosa. Of the 150 people who perished, eleven were members of the Hong Kong cricket team. Hong Kong's cricket ...

''. Walter Turner was the brother of another first-class cricketer, Arthur Turner, and educated at

Bedford Modern School Bedford Modern School (often called BMS) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in Bedford Charity, The Harpur Trust, born from the financial endowment, endowments le ...

between 1891 and 1893, and thereafter at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin *Wellington College, Wellington, New Z ...

where he was in the first XI in 1897. Walter Turner began his first-class career for Essex in 1899 shortly before his commission in the Royal Artillery on 6 January 1900. Thereafter he played as a batsman for Essex when on leave from his military duties abroad. Turner’s best performance was in the 1906 season when he scored 924 runs at 33.00. On returning to England after the first world war, he played in the 1919 season where he scored 371 runs at 51.57 and achieved a career match best with 172 runs against Middlesex. His son, Antony, was also a first-class cricketer. In terms of his military career, he was promoted Major on 11 June 1915 and Lieutenant-Colonel on 1 January 1917. He retired from the army on 23 December 1925.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Walter 1881 births 1948 deaths English cricketers Essex cricketers Sportspeople from Meerut Europeans cricketers British Army cricketers People educated at Bedford Modern School People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire British Army personnel of World War I Royal Artillery officers Military personnel of British India 19th-century British Army personnel