Imagine, if you will, a little girl, born in a place with a year-round hot trade-wind tropical rainforest climate, nicknamed the ‘Garden City of the Caribbean’, where the rain falls every month, with temperatures rarely above 31 degrees but not below about 25○ either. She was living a reasonably comfortable lifestyle with her parents, her father being the Acting Actuary for Georgetown, British Guiana [now Guyana] so a superior civil servant, if you like. In all probability their home, ‘Lamaha House’ was one of the large residences in colonial style.
The announcement of her birth in June 1892 was made in a local newspaper:
‘TURNER ‐ At Lamaha House, Georgetown, Demerara, on the 2nd inst., the wife of W.S. Turner, Chief Commissary, of a Daughter.’
The following year, her brother’s arrival was recorded in the same newspaper as
‘On 12 Sept at Ruby Villa, Croal St, a son born to Mrs W S Turner (posthumous)’
Sadly, as the posthumous indicates, a lot had happened to the family between June 1892 and September 1893.
As the (slightly blurred) newspaper account indicates, William Samuel Turner very suddenly died on May 4th 1893. He was 61 years old and the newspaper goes on to describe him as not having robust health but that he had, nonetheless, been a keen advocate for the militia and trained with them in an honorary rank of Colonel. Possibly he had married late in life as he was some 34 years older than his wife, who had herself been born in Georgetown. The newspaper report indicates that William had arrived in Georgetown in about 1877, had taken a twelvemonth furlough in 1888 but somehow managed to avoid the census returns which might have given further information about him! It seems likely that he had married at some point on his return as the little girl and boy in question – Madge and William – appear to be the only children.
Fortunately for research, another newspaper report about his death allows for triangulation of information.
Here we have another brother and a brother in law and by going backwards and forwards and checking one piece of information against another, we can be fairly sure that John, J L (James Llewellyn) and William Samuel are the sons of Thomas Turner, a carpet weaver from Kidderminster. W J Watson was married to their sister Emily. Just as well we were not dependent on his probate as that gives very little information.
Imagine the bewilderment of a little girl when her life is suddenly and inexplicably turned upside down, just before her first birthday. She was possibly hardly aware of her daddy before he was gone. In September 1893, her mother gives birth to her brother and the family of three, that should have been a family of four, had had their circumstances radically altered. Given that her mother was born in Georgetown, it seems likely (assuming her family were still there) that Sarah Edith and her two very young children would have been in their care although we don’t know this to be the case. Quite possibly their residence was the Ruby Villa referred to in the second birth announcement that told such a sad tale. At some point, however, either the Lodge in Georgetown of which William had been a member, or possibly the lodge[s] of one or more brother in UK, stepped in to take care of the family and it was decided to move them to England, a place that none of them were born into and which none of them had visited. The little family moved to the country of paternal relatives which, by comparison, must have seemed cold, dank and bleak. On the other hand, the motive of the Freemasonry behind the School had always been for the benefit of the pupils in difficult circumstances so the idea of moving the entire family across the ocean away from any life they had previously known was seen as A Good Thing.
‘the objects of charity were not consulted: benevolence was acted upon them rather than them participating in it.’ MRes Dissertation On receiving a Charitable Education
No travel documents for any of the family have been tracked down so it is not known at what point little Madge, baby William and grieving widow Sarah Edith actually arrived in England. The most that can be said is that they arrived between September 1893 and April 1901 which is a gap of seven years. In 1901, mother and son are boarders in a household in Wimbledon and at first glance it seems that Madge is not with them. However, after careful scrutiny of the 1901 entry, it is possible to see a potential error in the recording of the information.
It appears to indicate that Madge Turner is 19 and a general domestic born in Belvedere, Kent but is also a boarder (the status given to mother & brother) and that Nellie Kimpton (serv) is from Georgetown. On closer inspection, the figure 1 in front of the 9 could well be in a different hand by someone trying to make sense of a servant apparently aged 9.
Without being able to interrogate the enumerator or the copyist it is simply not possible to know but Madge, aged 9, is not found anywhere else and logic would indicate she would be with her mother as she is not yet at the School. The clincher is that there is a Nellie Kimpton born in Belvedere, Kent in 1881 so it seems highly probable that the two lines in the 1901 census have become mixed up.
Between the 1901 and 1911 census, Madge attended the School, leaving in 1908. Because it is not known at what point she left Georgetown, it is impossible to know how much she remembered of it. Did her first sight of the rather severe looking school at Clapham Junction make her heart quail?
Or was she filled with excitement at being with other little girls with whom to make friends?
In 1911 the family is together in Bournemouth although, as they lived in London before and after this date, it is possible they were taking a holiday at the time of the census. They were not to be together for long as William was shortly to travel to Australia where he married and served with Australian forces in World War One. The 1921 census does not appear to list either Sarah Edith or Madge Edith (although it is to be supposed that they were somewhere at this time!) and the next record we find is for Madge’s marriage to Frank Mervin Harrison, a civil servant, in 1923. Presumably her experiences at school can’t have been so traumatising that she ruled a line as she visited her alma mater in 1914, 1929, 1930 and 1932 and became a member of the Old Girls’ Association until at least 1933. The 1939 register finds her still in Middlesex with husband and mother but the next almost 40 years is a blank. The last ‘sighting’ of her is a death record in Devon in 1973 aged 81. Her mother, described somewhat charmlessly in 1939 as an ‘aged person’, had died in 1949 leaving Madge the sole survivor of the little Georgetown family.
But what of the brother you cry!
Well, his story is uncovered from https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/person/29150 and https://www.awm.gov.au/learn/schools/resources/anzac-diversity/william-turner Sadly, he was killed in WWI serving with Australian Forces, leaving a young widow.
‘Arriving in France in March 1916, William took part in the bitter fighting on the Somme near Mouquet Farm, where he was affected by shell-shock and made temporarily deaf by the heavy artillery bombardments. He was evacuated to the 26th Australian General Hospital in Ètaples, and remained there for more than a month. After re-joining the battalion in October 1916, William spent the bitterly cold winter in the trenches near the village of Flers. On 3 January 1917 a German artillery shell landed on the battalion headquarters, killing ten men and wounding three more. Among those killed was William Turner, who was 24 years old when he died.’ https://www.awm.gov.au/learn/schools/resources/anzac-diversity/william-turner
His personal effects, consisting of a brush, a small case, bathing trunks, and a damaged photograph, were forwarded to his mother in London.
But that’s not quite the end of the story as there is an ongoing plan of Roll of Honour name projection at the Australian Memorial, to ensure that
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
(Laurence Binyon For the Fallen)
And William Samuel Turner’s name will be projected onto the exterior of the Hall of Memory on:
Mon 20 June 2022 at 9:14pm
Mon 15 August 2022 at 12:18am
Fri 18 November 2022 at 2:17am
From Georgetown to London and on to Glanville, Australia via Wimbledon and Isleworth, the story of the Georgetown Turners echoes through the years. The players may have left the stage but the memory of them can still be found.
RMSG History Extra 