Margot Turner
Dame Evelyn Marguerite Turner, , 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. On joining the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service in 1937, Turner was posted initially to Cambridge Military Hospital, at Aldershot and then to India. In 1941 she was posted to Singapore working in Changi hospital and then Alexandra Hospital, until ordered to evacuate before the fall of Singapore.Turner served with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service from 1937 to 1949 and Queen Alexandra's [Royal Army Nursing Corps] from 1949 to 1968. She served as Matron-in-Chief of QARANC and Director, Army Nursing Services 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.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 (British TV series)|This Is Your Life] which featured Turner, and was convinced of the dramatic potential of the stories of women prisoners of the Japanese.
Honours
- British Empire">Great Britain">British Empire
- Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire