LIEUTENANT ALAN FLETCHER TURNER
LEICESTERSHIRE YEOMANRY
13TH MAY 1915 AGE 40
BURIED: SANCTUARY WOOD, BELGIUM
AlanTurner was a 40-year-old farmer from Witham Common, Grantham in Lincolnshire who had served with the 3rd Imperial Yeomanry throughout the Boer War, in which he was twice mentioned in despatches. During that war he was with the 3rd Yorkshire Hussars, in 1914 he was with another territorial force, the Leicestershire Yeomanry. He volunteered again for foreign service, took part in the Second Battle of Ypres and was killed at Frezenberg Ridge when the Leicestershire Yeomanry held the line for 24 hours against a fierce German attack. They lost many men: of the 291 memembers of the regiment who went into action, 93 were killed, including Lieutenant Turner, and 91 wounded. A letter from Trooper WH Walker, published in the Midland Mail on 4 June 1915, gives his account of the battle.