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TURNBULL Gordon McLeod MB BS FRACGP

1913 -1988

Gordon McLeod Turnbull was born on 6th May 1913, in Semaphore.  He was the son of Duncan Walker Turnbull and Robina Jane, nee Brown.  He was educated at Scotch College, Adelaide, and was awarded the junior and senior John Walker scholarships provided by the Licensed Victuallers' Association, at the age of 16 years. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1937.  During his fifth year, he was recommended for the Lister prize and the Archibald Watson prize. He went into general practice, at Unley Park and Goodwood, with Dr John Yeatman and several other medical practitioners.

Turnbull enlisted in the Army on 21st May 1940, and was posted, as a captain, to 2/6th FdAmb. He was attached to 2/7th FdAmb for a month, and then re-appointed, as RMO, to 2/6th FdAmb he embarked from 2MD, Sydney, on the Orontes for England. After arriving in Liverpool on 8th September 1940, he was attached, as an RMO, to HQ of 2nd Echelon, 1st Anti-Tank Regt. He left England, on 3rd January 1941, for the Middle East and was attached to HQ Army Service Corps 9th Aust Div in Dimra, Palestine.  Turnbull moved to Tobruk with the 9th Division in late March 1941 to October, as RMO to the Service Corps.  He serviced 22 scattered units within the defence perimeter.  His unit was evacuated to Lebanon in late October 1941 along with the rest of the 9th Division.  Following the 1st battle of El Alamein, Turnbull was appointed RMO of the 2/28th Aust InfBn, on 3 August 1942.  He was with the battalion for the 2nd battle of El Alamein from 23rd October to 5th November 1942.  During this time his RAP was located just 700 yards from the front line, half a mile SW of the Block House, in the northern sector adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, where the 9th Division withstood the main German counter attack. Turnbull return to Australia with the battalion on the Queen Mary arriving Sydney on 12th February 1943.  While training with the battalion on the Atherton tablelands in Queensland he was selected to join three other AAMC doctors to train in plastic surgery with Lieutenant Colonel Benny Rank, Australia’s only specialist in this field, at 115th Military Hospital, Heidelberg. Following his training Turnbull was appointed as a plastic surgeon to the 110th Military hospital, Hollywood, Perth in December 1944.  Promoted to major on the 19th April 1945, he was discharged on the 5th March 1946 and placed on the Reserve of Officers.

Turnbull married Judith Ethel Bottomley, on 12th December 1945, at St Michael’s Church in Vaucluse, NSW. She was the daughter of William Edwin Bottomley DCM and Nancy Lillian, nee Keep of Rose Bay, Sydney.  Turnbull met Judith, a lieutenant, when she was serving in the AAMC as an occupational therapist. Appointed to the 2/AIF she served in Australia, in 112 AGH Brisbane and 110 AGH, Perth.  Following the war, Turnbull returned to Adelaide, with his new wife, and the practice at Unley Park and Goodwood. He took up visiting plastic surgical positions at the RAH and RGH and then travelled to England, in October 1949, to undertake postgraduate study in plastic surgery.  He continued with his GP practice on return from England and maintain his honorary visiting position in plastic surgery at the RGH until 1958. A member of the BMA and AMA, he gained his FRACGP in 1973. He was elected president of the Scotch College Old Collegians’ Association in 1954.  Gordon McLeod Turnbull, died, on 16th June 1988, at the RGH, Daw Park. His wife and four sons, John Andrew Richard and Mark survived him.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears III: Medical Practitioners South Australia, who Served in World War 2. 

Swain, Jelly, Verco, Summers. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2019. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD