Ralph Lilley Turner

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School of Oriental Studies, University of London
In office
1937–1957
Personal details
Born(1888-10-05)5 October 1888
Charlton, London, England
Died22 April 1983(1983-04-22) (aged 94)
OccupationPhilologist of Indian languages
THE GURKHA
SOLDIER
Bravest of the brave,
most generous of the generous,
never had country
more faithful friends
than you.
Professor Sir Ralph Turner MC

Sir Ralph Lilley Turner

philologist of Indian languages and a university administrator. He is notable for composing an Indo-Aryan comparative dictionary. He is also the author of some publications concerning the Romani language
.

Early life and education

Turner was born in

.

Career

In 1913, he joined the Indian Educational Service as a lecturer at Queen's College,

Benares Hindu University
.

In 1922, Turner returned to England as Professor of

Board of Education put together a plan with SOAS for short courses in Japanese to meet wartime demands.[1]

He was knighted in 1950. His magnum opus, the Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages was published in 1966. An Index to this work was produced in 1969 by his wife Dorothy Rivers Turner, née Goulty, who had been arranging slips for the dictionary since the first year of their marriage in about 1920.[2] She also collaborated on Phonetic Analysis in 1971, which appeared in print a few months before her death.[3]

The British memorial in London to the

Elizabeth II on 3 December 1997.[4] The legend on the Gurkha memorial
is taken from the following quotation written by Sir Ralph:

As I write these last words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your fires, on forced march or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you.

Personal life

He was married to Dorothy Rivers Goulty, with whom he had three daughters and a son.[5] One of his grandchildren is Professor Geoffrey L. Smith, head of the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge.

Another grandchild of Sir Ralph Turner is David Tee, who is in the current England 45+ indoor cricket team. Earlier in his career he had a successful few years for Hertfordshire, and toured the West Indies representing Great British colleges.

Through his daughter, Kathleen L. Turner, one of his great-grandchildren is actor Jeremy Irvine.

References

Works

Archives

References

  1. ^ Peter Kornicki, Eavesdropping on the Emperor: Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War with Japan (London: Hurst & Co., 2021), pp. 16–17, 49–50, 59.
  2. .
  3. .
  4. ^ Staff. The Gurkhas – Britain's oldest allies BBC, 4 December 1997
  5. ^ "TURNER, Dorothy Rivers - Persons of Indian Studies by Prof. Dr. Klaus Karttunen". whowaswho-indology.info. Retrieved 18 March 2024.