Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

An immediate Second World War “behind enemy lines” M.C. group of seven awarded to Major P. S. Turner, Royal Artillery

Military Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1944; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp, 8th Army; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, E.II.R. (Major, M.C., R.A.), together with original card forwarding box for the first, with Buckingham Palace letter and related War Office communication, dated 5 February 1947, a set of miniature dress medals, and a Royal Artillery Institution prize medal, silver, the edge engraved, ‘Major P. S. Turner, M.C., R.A.’, in its fitted case of issue, mounted as worn, the G.S.M. officially re-impressed, contact marks, very fine or better (15) £800-1000

M.C. London Gazette 16 November 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘On 1 August 1944, Major P. S. Turner penetrated with a party of signallers through the strongly held German positions in the Pupnat area of the Island of Korcula and took up an Observation Post within 500 yards of the Korcula defences from which when dawn came he was able to direct the fire of the battery which had landed in the Lumbarda area. Later that evening after his battery had been withdrawn by sea, after a most successful shoot, he laid an ambush with his signallers and three partisans on the main supply route between the German garrisons of Postrana and Pupnat. Soon after a jeep containing a German officer and driver approached, closely followed by a 5-ton lorry tightly packed with German troops. Major Turner opened fire causing the jeep to crash and wounding the driver. As the officer refused to surrender he was shot. The ambush then brought the lorry to a halt and after opening fire on the occupants at close range with machine carbines and rifles, withdrew to the cover of the bushes and to safety without loss or damage to personnel or equipment. Subsequent reports disclosed that five Germans were killed and a considerable number wounded.’

Patrick Sutherland Turner was officially serving in No. 111 Field Regiment, R.A., at the time of leading the above described infiltration of enemy positions on the Island of Korcula. In the circumstances, however, it seems likely that he received suitable training from one of several clandestine forces then employed by Adriatic Land Forces H.Q., the majority of them based on Vis - certainly the recommendation for his M.C. is retained under a “Special Operations” reference in the National Archives.

Born in March 1914, he was originally commissioned into the Royal Artillery in February 1934, and was appointed an Acting Captain on the outbreak of hostilities. He ended the War as a Temporary Major, which rank became substantive in February 1947, and he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1955, following further active service in the Malaya emergency. Turner was placed on the Retired List in January 1959.