Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner

Sir Hilgrove Turner
Portrait by unknown artist of General Sir (Tomkyns) Hilgrove Turner
Born	12 January 1764 Uxbridge (Middlesex, England)
Died	6 May 1843 (1843-05-07) (aged 79) Grouville (Jersey, Channel Isles)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service / branch	British Army
Rank	General
Commands	Garrison of Jersey
Battles / wars	French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order

General Sir Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner GCH KC (12 January 1764 – 6 May 1843) was a British Army officer best known for escorting the Rosetta Stone from Egypt to England.

Military career

Turner was commissioned as an ensign on 20 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, from 1826 to 1832, 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.
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)
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)
8. "Visit Jersey". Visit Jersey. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2018.

External links

Government offices
Preceded by Sir George Don	Lieutenant Governor of Jersey 1814–1816	Succeeded by Hugh Gordon
Military offices
Preceded by Sir Hew Dalrymple, 1st Baronet	Colonel of the 19th (The 1st Yorkshire North Riding) Regiment of Foot 1811–1843	Succeeded by Sir Warren Peacocke