Sgt. H. Alexander Turner enlisted on 9 January 1940 with the 2nd Battalion, 48th Highlanders for overseas duty and was given the service number B73650. As a Sergeant on enlistment he had prior service in the militia reserves. Once overseas he joined the 1st Battalion, 48th Highlanders of Canada. Sgt Turner served in Sicily, Italy and the Netherlands, transferring on 12 March 1945 with the battalion as part of the 1st Canadian Division from Leghorn, Italy to Marseilles, France on route to Belgium to participate in the final liberation of the Netherlands. He was wounded (gun shot wound right shoulder) in Holland on 12 April 1945, the 1st Day of Operation Cannonshot when the battalion crossed the Ijssel River at Wilp and advanced to Twello. He was struck off strength of the battalion to go to hospital and after recovery returned to Canada and Toronto, being discharged on 25 October 1945 at MD No. 2.

Turner reenlisted with the home battalion following the war and became Company Sergeant Major of HQ/Sp Company. He was President of the Board of Management of the Sergeant’s Mess in 1955 a year before his death on 4 September 1956. That fall, in honour of his service, the battalion created the Turner Memorial Company Shoot (now called the Turner Shoot) and the first competition was held on 3 November 1956. It continues to this day. The Falcon, the regiment’s publication/newsletter, remarked that CSM Turner believed the shoot should be held in the worst weather possible as that was the true sign of a marksman.

NOK: Marion Margaret Turner, wife: 27 Franklin Avenue, Toronto.

A donation in honour of CSM Turner was made by his grandson David Turner.