Sir

Hilgrove Turner
Portrait by unknown artist of General Sir (Tomkyns) Hilgrove Turner
Born12 January 1764
Uxbridge (Middlesex, England)
Died6 May 1843 (1843-05-07) (aged 79)
Grouville (Jersey, Channel Isles)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
RankGeneral
Commands heldGarrison of Jersey
Battles/warsFrench Revolutionary Wars
Napoleonic Wars
AwardsKnight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order

General Sir Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner GCH KC (12 January 1764 – 6 May 1843), known as Sir Hilgrove Turner, is best known as the officer who escorted the Rosetta Stone from Egypt to England.

Military career

Turner was commissioned as an Ensign on the 20th of February, 1782, into the Third Regiment of Foot Guards.[1] In 1792 he was a Lieutenant and Captain.[2] Turner and the Stone were on board the recently captured French ship HMS Egyptienne when it made its way to England in September, 1801. He claimed that he had personally seized the Stone from General Jacques-François Menou and carried it away on a gun carriage. He also asserted that when the French learned of his intentions, that they removed the packaging for the Stone and that "it was thrown upon its face".[3] There are other versions of how the English forces captured the Stone from the French, so it is unknown how reliable his account is. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in December 1804.[4]

In 1801 he was made Colonel, in 1808 Major-General.[5] He became Colonel of the 19th (or The 1st Yorkshire North Riding) Regiment of Foot on 27 April, 1811 (his rank in the regiment being different from his rank in the army).[6][7] From 1812 to 1830 he held the post of Groom of the Bedchamber to George IV (including the period when the latter acted as Prince Regent during his father's mental illness). He would later become Lieutenant Governor of Jersey from 1814 to 1816[8] and Governor and military Commander-in-chief of Bermuda, which was elevated to an Imperial fortress in the aftermath of the independence of the colonies that became the United States of America, from 1826 to 1832,[9] and in 1827 became a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order.

Personal life

Turner was the son of Richard Turner, a surgeon in Uxbridge, Middlesex and his wife Magdalen Hilgrove, a native of Jersey. In 1839 his daughter Charlotte Esther Turner married Henry Octavius Coxe, Bodleian librarian. Coxe's predecessor Bulkeley Bandinel was Tomkyns Turner's second cousin. Some years after his death Turner's children were involved in a lawsuit over the legacies left them in the wills of some Hilgrove kinsmen.

References

  1. ↑ A LIST OF THE OFFICERS of the ARMY. Great Britain: War Office. 31 March 1784. p. 61. Third Regiment of Foot Guards; Ensign; 1782; T. Hilgrove Turner 20 Feb.
  2. ↑ Watson, Samuel (1792). "A LIST of the ARMY. III (Foot-Guards) (London & Westminster). Lieutenants & Captains". THE Gentleman's and Citizens ALMANACK, COMPILED BY Samuel Watson, For the Year of our Lord, 1792. Dublin, Ireland: Printed for Samuel Watson, at No. 71, in Grafton-Street, Thomas Stewart, Bookseller, No. 1 King'-Inns-Quay, and George Draper, Jun. Bookseller, 71, Grafton-Street. p. 100.
  3. ↑ Parkinson, Richard. The Rosetta Stone: British Museum Objects in Focus. p. 29. The British Museum Press. 2005. 978-0-7141-5021-5
  4. ↑ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  5. ↑ Dawson, Warren R. (Warren Royal), 1888-1968. (2012). Who was who in Egyptology. Bierbrier, M. L. (Fourth rev. ed.). London. p. 546. ISBN 9780856982071. OCLC 802867967.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ HART, Lieut. 49th Regt., H. O. (1839). LONDON: PUBLISHED BY SMITH, ELDER AND CO. CORNHILL. PRINTED BY STEWART AND MURRAY, OLD BAILEY. p. 3. GENERALS. 1830. 22 July. Sir Hilgrove Turner, GCH. & KC. 19 F. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ HART, Lieut. 49th Regt., H. O. (1839). LONDON: PUBLISHED BY SMITH, ELDER AND CO. CORNHILL. PRINTED BY STEWART AND MURRAY, OLD BAILEY. p. 70. 19th (or The 1st Yorkshire North Riding) Regiment of FootColonel Sir Hilgrove Turner, G.C.H. K.C. Ens. 20 Feb. 1782; Lieut. & Capt. 13 Oct. 89 ; Capt. & Lieut.-Col. 12 Nov. 94 ; Col. 1 Jan. 01 ; Major-Gen. 26 Apr. 08; Liet-Gen. 4 June 13; Gen. 22 July, 30; Col. 19th Regt. 27 Apr. 11. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ "Visit Jersey". Visit Jersey. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  9. ↑ "thePeerage.com: Person Page – 43314". Retrieved 6 July 2010.
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