Sir George Turner

Abstract

George Turner (born 10 February 1848 in Portsea Town, near Southampton, England - died: 12 March 1915 in Colyton, Devonshire, England), pioneer of public health in South Africa, was an English bacteriologist. In July 1895 Turner was appointed as the first medical officer of health of the Cape Colony. Within a year after he took up his position the first rinderpest epidemic approached the colony and in December 1896 the German bacteriologist Dr R. Koch and his assistant arrived to lead the fight against the disease. Turner accompanied Koch's party to Kimberley, where a field laboratory had been established for their use. In August 1900, shortly after the British occupation of the Transvaal during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), Turner was seconded to the military authorities in the Transvaal as sanitary advisor. Rinderpest had again broken out in 1900 and in May 1901 he and government bacteriologist Dr Arnold Theiler were sent to the Orange River Colony (now the Free State) and Basutoland (now Lesotho) where they diagnosed the disease and conducted a successful inoculation campaign. Theiler described him around this time as a highly qualified veterinarian and bacteriologist. Turner was directed to establish a rinderpest station at the government bacteriological laboratory at Daspoort, Pretoria, but serum production there was hampered by a lack of facilities and ended early in 1902. In 1901, at his own request, Turner was given an additional appointment as superintendent of the Pretoria Leper Asylum. The study of leprosy became his main interest. He spent much of his time at the asylum conducting bacteriological studies of the disease and published a "Special report on leprosy" in the South African Medical Record (1903/4, Vol. 1). Turner retired officially early in 1908, but already returned to England towards the end of October 1907. Settling in Aberdeen, Scotland, he continued his study of leprosy and started learning modern Greek in preparation for an investigation of leprosy on Cyprus. However, it became clear that he was himself suffering from the disease, which he had probably contracted in Pretoria. He therefore retired to the village Colyton, in Devonshire, and though he continued his work there, he soon lost the use of his left arm. (Source: S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=2889)