By Paul Fisher
A SALTCOATS war hero is to be commemorated at Glasgow University - 100 years on from the end of the Great War.
William Turner, who was born in Glasgow in September 1876, was well known in his adopted town of Saltcoats after he set up a medical practice.
Now 100 years after his death, Captain Turner will be amongst 19 additional names added to the university’s roll of honour in November - and his family are invited to the memorial services on Remembrance Sunday.
William joined the University of Glasgow at the age of 21, in the academic session 1897-98. He matriculated in the faculty of Medicine, enrolling to study Zoology and Chemistry. He must have been successful in these subjects - and in addition in Biology and Natural Philosophy - as he met the criteria for studying Anatomy and Physiology in second year. In his third year William studied Material Medica and Advanced Practical Physiology, before taking Surgery, Medicine, and Pathology in his final year.
He was also a member of the Ardrossan School Board and married and had three children but when the war broke out, he closed his practice and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps.
He served first in the East, before seeing service on the Western Front.
Captain Turner returned to the UK to fight acute pneumonia. He was being treated in a hospital in North England when he died of pneumonia on April 6, 1918, at the age of 43. His funeral took place in Ardrossan Cemetery.
University Chaplain, Reverend Stuart MacQuarrie said: “It’s right to honour all of our fallen with their names engraved on an additional stone panel in the Memorial Chapel.”, which was built to remember the great sacrifice made by the University’s students, staff and alumni during the First World War.
“We invite all the families, schools, and communities related to the fallen to join us for the memorial services on November 11.”
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