Major Maurice Turnbull of the Welsh Guards, the Glamorgan and England all-round sportsman who had played nine Tests, captained Glamorgan for ten years and represented Wales at rugby and squash, was shot through the head by a sniper near the Normandy village of Montchamp on 5 August 1944. He was 38. His was the second Test cricketer death of the Normandy campaign and ended the most polished all-round sporting career produced by inter-war Welsh cricket.
Born in Cardiff in 1906 to a wealthy ship-owning family, Turnbull captained the Cambridge XI, made his Test debut in 1930 and played nine Tests over six years. He took on the Glamorgan captaincy in 1930 at the age of 24, and by 1939 had transformed a perennially loss-making county into a competitive Championship side that finished a then-best fourth in 1937. He was joint-secretary of the MCC's wartime selection committee.
Commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1939, Turnbull rose to Major. His battalion landed in Normandy in late June 1944 and joined the Allied push south from the Caen sector. By the first week of August the Guards Armoured Division was engaged in fierce hedgerow fighting in the Suisse Normande, where the bocage stripped infantry of their armoured cover.
Turnbull's Welsh Guards company had pushed forward of its supporting tanks during a Panzer counter-attack and was cut off in the bocage countryside south of Montchamp. Turnbull went forward on a personal reconnaissance to plot a way back to the battalion. A German sniper concealed in a hedgerow shot him through the head; he died instantly.
His body was recovered after the position was retaken later that day by Sergeant Fred Llewellyn, one of his own men, who carried Turnbull's personal effects back through the Welsh Guards lines and, eventually, to his widow Elizabeth in Glamorgan. The Welsh Guards lost more than 100 men in the fighting around Montchamp on 5 August 1944.
A county captain who had filled almost every role available to a 1930s amateur — Cambridge Blue, England middle-order batsman, Glamorgan secretary, Welsh rugby international, England squash player — Turnbull was already secretary of his county and a member of the MCC committee when he joined the Welsh Guards in 1939. His wartime Glamorgan duties had been delegated to JC Clay; cricket assumed he would resume as captain in 1946.
5 Aug 1944 — Welsh Guards attack near Montchamp in Normandy
Turnbull's company is cut off ahead of supporting tanks
He goes forward on personal reconnaissance to find a route back
Shot through the head by a German sniper; killed instantly
Body recovered later that day by Sgt Fred Llewellyn
Welsh Guards suffer over 100 casualties at Montchamp
16 Mar 1906
Born in Cardiff
1929
Captains Cambridge University
1930
Test debut for England v New Zealand; takes Glamorgan captaincy
1937
Glamorgan finish a then-record fourth in the Championship
1939
Commissioned into the Welsh Guards
Jun 1944
Welsh Guards land in Normandy
5 Aug 1944
Killed by sniper near Montchamp
“The most accomplished all-round sportsman ever produced by Wales.”
“He went forward to look for a way back for his men. He never came back himself.”
Glamorgan held a memorial service at Cardiff Arms Park; the county pavilion gates at Sophia Gardens were later named after him. Wisden's 1945 obituary called him 'the most accomplished all-round sportsman ever produced by Wales'. JC Clay took over as captain on a caretaker basis until Wilfred Wooller assumed the role and led Glamorgan to their first County Championship in 1948.
The third major Test-cricket death of the war, after Farnes and Verity, and the most senior in cricket administration. Turnbull's loss left Glamorgan rudderless on the eve of the county's first Championship in 1948.
The Maurice Turnbull Gates at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, commemorate him; a Major Maurice Turnbull memorial trophy is contested annually by Welsh schools. He remains the only Welshman to have played both Test cricket and rugby for Wales — a record unlikely to be challenged.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.