Poppy In memoriam Poppy

Lance Corporal Stewart Lyttle Turner

 

Turner SL

 

 

Stewart Lyttle Turner was born at Woodford, County Armagh, on 26 October 1892, son of coachman Robert Turner and his wife Margaret Jane (nee Crossin).

By 1911 he was living with his family at North Queen Street, Duncairn, Belfast, and working as a clerk. They later moved to 279 Springfield Road.

Turner enlisted in the North Irish Horse at Antrim on 2 June 1915 (No.1656). In 1916 or early 1917 he was sent to France with the regiment, either with a reinforcement draft or as part of E Squadron, which embarked in January 1916.

On 20 July 1917 Turner was killed when a party from the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment came under German shellfire near Ypres.

He was buried at Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, grave II.F.1. His gravestone inscription reads:

1656 LANCE CPL.
STEWART LYTTLE TURNER
NORTH IRISH HORSE
20TH JULY 1917 AGE 24

THERE REMAINETH A REST
FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD

 

In 1918 Turner's cousin, Belfast fruit merchant and councillor William George Turner, paid a subscription of £50 to the Ulster Volunteer Force Hospitals fund to have a bed named in the late soldier's honour.

 

By sad chance another North Irish Horseman with the same surname, Clement Douglas Turner, was killed on the same day. The two men are buried side-by-side.

 

Gravestone images Copyright © Phillip Tardif with all rights reserved as set out in this Use of Material policy. Image of Lance Corporal Turner from Belfast Evening Telegraph, and kindly provided by Nigel Henderson, Researcher at History Hub Ulster (www.greatwarbelfastclippings.com).