Sir George Turner. Colour photograph, 19--.

"In 1908, on reaching the age-limit of 60, he [Turner] retired and returned to Great Britain, where, however, he continued his researches on leprosy. Some years after he left Pretoria it was found that he was suffering from leprosy, contracted it was believed, when in the Transvaal. After a tragic illness, heroically borne, he died at his home at Colyton, Devon, on 13th March, 1915."--Curson, op. cit., p. 750

"Sir George Turner": if this identification is correct, it could refer to Sir George Turner (1848-1915), medical officer of health in South Africa, expert on rinderpest, and medical superintendent of the Pretoria Leper Asylum 1901-1908. He seems the most likely, as (a) the present portait resembles the photograph of him reproduced by Curson, loc. cit., and (b) the present work is accompanied by a photograph of a man with leprosy. Obituaries of him are in Lancet, 20 March 1915, i: 622-623 and 677, and British medical journal, 1915, i: 532-533. An alternative is Sir George Robertson Turner, naval and general surgeon (G.C. Cook in Journal of medical biography, 1995, 3: 170-177)

[between 1908 and 1915]

1 photograph : transparency on glass, printed in colours ; glass 21.5 x 16.5 cm

Handwritten label on container: "Autochrome of Sir George Turner"

H.H. Curson, 'South African medical pioneers in veterinary science', South African medical journal, 25 November 1933, vol. 7, pp. 745-751 (portrait on p. 747)

Wellcome Collection 750189i