Sir Ralph Lilley Turner (5 October 1888 – 22 April 1983) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

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 Romani ( ; also Romanes , Romany, Roma; ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani people. The largest of these are Vlax Romani language, Vlax Romani (about 500,000 speakers), Balkan Romani (600,000), and Sinte Roma ...

Early life and education

Turner was born in

Charlton, London Charlton is an area of southeast London, England, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east of Greenwich and west of Woolwich, on the south bank of the River Thames, southeast of Charing Cross. An ancient parish in the county of Kent, i ...

, the son of Bertha (Lilley) and George S. Turner. He was educated at the Perse School and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

Career

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

Benares Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges, Ganges river in North India, northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hinduism, Hindu world.* * * * The city ...

. From 1915 to 1919, he served with the 2nd battalion,

3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles The 3rd Gorkha Rifles or Third Gorkha Rifles, abbreviated as 3 GR is an Indian Army infantry regiment. It was originally a Gurkha Gorkha regiments (India), regiment of the British Indian Army formed in 1815. This regiment recruit mainly Magars an ...

in the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, winning the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. From 1920 to 1922, he was Professor of Indian Linguistics at

Benares Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and fou ...

. In 1922, Turner returned to England as Professor of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

at the School of Oriental Studies at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. Between 1924 and 1932, he also published several papers on Romani Studies in the ''Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society'', including "On the position of Romani in Indo-Aryan" (1927). He was director of the school from 1937 to 1957, although he continued to occupy his chair as well until 1954. From 1939 onwards he frequently warned the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

that given the possibility of war with Japan it was essential to start training linguists immediately, but his warnings were ignored. It was only after the outbreak of war with Japan that, early in 1942, the

and the

Board of Education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...

put together a plan with SOAS for short courses in Japanese to meet wartime demands. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in 1950. His

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

, the ''Comparative

Dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

of the

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...

'' 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. She also collaborated on ''Phonetic Analysis'' in 1971, which appeared in print a few months before her death. The British memorial in London to the Gurkhas was unveiled by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

on 3 December 1997.Staff
The Gurkhas – Britain's oldest allies
BBC, 4 December 1997 The legend on the Gurkha memorial is taken from the following quotation written by Sir Ralph:

Personal life

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

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. 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 The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

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

References

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

Obituary: Sir Ralph Lilley Turner
Wright, J.C. & Cowan, C.D. (1984) ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.'' University of London. Vol. 47, No. 3. pp. 540–548.

Works

A Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of the Nepali LanguageA Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Ralph 1888 births 1983 deaths People from Charlton, London People educated at The Perse School Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge English orientalists English philologists Knights Bachelor Academics of SOAS University of London British Indian Army officers Recipients of the Military Cross Indian Army personnel of World War I Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge Presidents of the Royal Asiatic Society

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

References

Works

Archives

References