James Turnbull VC

Their names will be remembered for evermore

Ninety minutes after going over the top on the first day of the Somme, Sergeant James Turnbull must have known his chances for survival were unlikely. In the British trenches the whistles had sounded at 7.23am. Officers were first up the ladders, quickly followed by the men of The Highland Light Infantry. Six days of artillery bombardment left no man's land "with an awful stillness" as the Glasgow regiment made their way towards a former quarry turned into a German stronghold called the Leipzig Salient.

Glasgow Men Capture German Position

The 16th and 17th Battalions had been ordered to attack and, as they reached the German wire, the guns opened up. In the first hour and a half of the battle, the 16th lost 19 officers and 492 men out of 800. The 17th consolidated on the Salient and held it. The Glasgow men were the only British unit to capture and hold a German position. The 17th lost 22 officers and 447 from the ranks.

Turnbull, an army reservist and amateur sportsman before the war, was known to his fellow soldiers as an athletic, forthright personality who took care of his men "to the risk of being court-martialled for insubordination where their welfare was concerned".

In the chaos of the attack on the Leipzig Salient, one officer had given the order "every man for himself". From his position at the tip of the wedge of troops attacking the Salient, Turnbull must have realised how hopeless his situation was, yet he pressed on. German machine guns and snipers cut down men from three sides.

He Saved his Battalion

Turnbull, known as a keen cricketer, could throw grenades further than any man in the battalion. A journalist serving with him recalled how Turnbull organised four men to keep carrying grenades to him, from an abandoned German arms cache. When he had to wait for bombs, he resorted to turning machine guns on the Germans, holding the entire flank at bay for 18 hours and, according to the journalist Lance Corporal J McKechnie, "saving the battalion".

The HLI official history recounts: "It was hopeless, yet it was necessary to hold on till nightfall. Turnbull shouldered the responsibility."

Having made it into the trenches of the German lines, Turnbull and his HLI bombers found themselves in a maze. They had driven the Germans back, but the advance was painfully slow... Late in the afternoon a sniper picked off Turnbull, killing him instantly. A soldier with him later wrote: "It was chasing Germans round corners at the head of the communication trench that we lost Sergeant Turnbull VC." He is buried at Lonsdale Cemetery, Authuille, France.

An Honour Won Dearly

Turnbull's father and sister received his VC at Buckingham Palace in 1917 and invited his old comrades to view it in Glasgow. The Outpost, magazine of the 17th battalion, wrote: "Without worrying... about anyone of higher rank he took charge of the whole operations around in his immediate storm centre... he won his honour dearly".

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Images: 

• Sergeant James Y Turnbull, whose Victoria Cross was awarded posthumously. Credit: J W Arthur, I S Munro, 1920, The Seventeenth Highland Light Infantry ... Record of War Service, 1914-1918, Glasgow, p90-1
  

• How Turnbull was awarded the VC, as recreated by popular war illustrator Alfred Pearse, who drew for mass-circulation periodicals during the war. Credit: Hutchison & Co, (Publishers), 1917, Deeds that Thrill the Empire, Vol 2, p865
  

• Victoria Cross holders became popular heroes, but this cigarette card 'cheats' by showing Turnbull wearing his medal. It was awarded after his death, and has been added to the image by the printer. Credit: Private Collection.