BrigadierDame Evelyn Marguerite Turner, DBE, RRC (10 May 1910 – 24 September 1993), known as Margot Turner, was a British military nurse and nursing administrator. A prisoner of war during the Second World War, she resumed her career following liberation and served in a succession of foreign postings.

Nursing career

Turner commenced her nursing career as a student nurse in 1931 at St.Bartholomew's Hospital, London.[1] On joining the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) in 1937, Turner was posted initially to Cambridge Military Hospital, at Aldershot and then to India.[1] In 1941 she was posted to Singapore working in Changi hospital and then Alexandra Hospital, until ordered to evacuate before the Japanese invasion.[1][2]

Turner continued to serve with QAIMNS from 1937 to 1949 and then Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC) from 1949 to 1968. She served as Matron-in-Chief of QARANC and Director, Army Nursing Services (1964–68) and was Colonel-Commandant of QARANC from 1969 to 1974.

Prisoner of war

Turner's obituary in The Independent recounted her horrific experiences as a prisoner of war held by the Japanese.[3]

The television series Tenko was created by Lavinia Warner after she had worked as a researcher for the edition of the television programme This Is Your Life which featured Turner, and was convinced of the dramatic potential of the stories of women prisoners of the Japanese.[4]

Honours

Tod

Turner starb am 24. September 1993 im Alter von 83 Jahren im St. Dunstan's Heim für behinderte ehemalige Soldaten und Soldatinnen in Brighton , East Sussex, in Anwesenheit von Krankenschwestern und ihrem Betreuer Geoffrey Wilcock.

Referenzen

  1. ^ a b c Smyth, John (1970). Der Wille zum Leben: Die Geschichte von Dame Margot Turner DBE, RRC . Leicester: Ulverscroft. S.  1–20 , 250–260 .
  2. ^ „Turner, Dame Evelyn Marguerite [Margot] (1910–1993), Krankenschwester“ . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . doi : 10.1093/ref:odnb/53383 . Abgerufen am 14. März 2025 .
  3. ^ „Nachruf: Dame Margot Turner“ . The Independent . 11. Oktober 1993.
  4. ^ Warner and Sandilands Women Beyond the Wire: A Story of Prisoners of the Japanese 1942–45 , 1982, Schutzumschlag

Weiterführende Literatur

  • Smyth, Sir John , Der Wille zum Leben: Die Geschichte von Dame Margot Turner DBE, RRC (Cassell, 1970)