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

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 especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

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 Romany, Romanes , Roma; rom, rromani ćhib, links=no) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities. According to '' Ethnologue'', seven varieties of Romani are divergent enough to be considered languages of their ...

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, it b ...

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

Perse School (He who does things for others does them for himself) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = Nondenominational Christian , president = , head_label = Head , ...

and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

Career

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

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

. 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 regiment of the British Indian Army formed in 1815. This regiment recruit mainly Magars and Khas/Chhetri tribes. Th ...

in the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which cou ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, winning the

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

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

Benares Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. ...

. In 1922, Turner returned to England as Professor of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

at the

School of Oriental Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

. 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 was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

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 ar ...

put together a plan with SOAS for short courses in Japanese to meet wartime demands.Peter Kornicki, ''Eavesdropping on the Emperor: Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War with Japan'' (London: Hurst & Co., 2021), pp. 16–17, 49–50, 59. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of 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. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

in 1950. His magnum opus, the ''Comparative

Dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologie ...

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 language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, P ...

'' was published in 1966. The British memorial in London to the

Gurkhas The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are r ...

was unveiled by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...

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. One of his grandchildren is Professor Geoffrey L. Smith, head of the Department of Pathology at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Another grandchild of Sir Ralph Turner is

David Tee David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, 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 a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

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

Jeremy Irvine Jeremy William Fredric Smith (born 18 June 1990), known professionally as Jeremy Irvine, is an English actor who made his film debut in the epic war film '' War Horse'' (2011). In 2012, he portrayed Philip "Pip" Pirrip in the film adaptation of ...

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