Pte 12942 Joseph James Turner

• Age: 24
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Friday 22nd March 1918
• Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
  Panel Ref: P21-23

Joseph James Turner was born on 16th May 1893 in Liverpool the son of Frederick  Turner and his wife Hannah (nee Charnock), He was baptised on 04th June 1893 in All Saints, Stoneycroft, his parents’ residence 40 Chatsworth Street, and his father’s occupation shunter. His parents were both born in Liverpool and married in 1886.  Joseph was the fourth of ten children; he had older siblings Susannah, Mary Alice, and William, and younger siblings  Alexander, Frederick, Annie, Lucy, Elizabeth, and James. 

In 1901 the family is found at 3 Rock View, Stoneycroft, with five children.  His father is an overlooker in a rope works, Joseph is 7.   Also living with them is Frances A. Webb, widow, 59, a seamstress.  His eldest sister Susannah, 12, is living with her grandmother Susannah and step grandfather Joseph Swarbrick, a rope maker, at 191 Prescot Road, Stoneycroft.  (His parents lived with the Swarbricks in 1891 in Rock Street.  It appears Susannah was raised by them and later, by an aunt and uncle.) 

By 1911 they have moved to 32 Oceanic Road, Old Swan.  His father, 45, is a ropery foreman, and Joseph, 18, and Alexander, 16 are rope makers.  His mother is 42, Annie is 10 Lucy 8, and James 4.  The youngest boy James died a few weeks after the census.

He originally enlisted in the 11th Battalion King’s (Liverpool) Regiment as Private 12942. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he enlisted soon after war was declared. He arrived in France on 19th May 1915. He was later transferred to the 20th Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment. and subsequently to the 17th Battalion, probably after the disbandment of the 20th Battalion in France in February 1918. He was serving in the 17^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 12942 when he was killed in action on the 22nd March 1918, aged 24, during the German Spring Offensive.

Joseph has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

He was reported missing in the paper on 14th May 1918.

He earned his three medals and is commemorated locally on the following Memorials:

All Saints Church Screen, Stoneycroft

Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 36

His brother Alexander enlisted on 07th February 1916 and was mobilised in August in the R.F.A.  He served in France from September 1917, and was hospitalised with influenza in Liverpool, whilst home on leave from France, from January to March 1919.  He was discharged in March 1920 and rejoined the Territorials after the war.  He later had a daughter he named Josephine.

We currently have no further information on Joseph James Turner, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.