Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

J H Turner
Sandhurst/Frilford Heath

John Henry Turner, was born in Lincolnshire on 8 Jume 1881 but spent his golfing career in the south, principally in Oxfordshire.

The son of Silas and Susan Turner, the family had moved to Headington, Oxfordshire by the time of the 1891 census where Silas is recorded as a grocer.

John started as an assistant to Arthur Reid at Thonock before becoming professional at the Royal Military College, Camberley (now Sandhurst) at which time, according to the 1901 census, he was boarding, along with his elder brother William, a professional cricketer, with Fanny Golding in Princess Street, Camberley. He was the first pro at High Wycombe and Bourne End Golf Club in 1904, a 9-hole course laid out by J G Sherlock. In that same year he married Kathleen Agnes Hickey. Turner extended the course to 18 holes ready for play in 1907.

In that same year, cups were presented to the club on the condition that its name be changed to Flackwell Heath and it was with that affiliation he played a home and away challenge against Fred Robson in 1909.

He served as professional to the Denham club in Buckinghamshire and appears there as a professional golfer on the 1911 census, before becoming professional to the Frilford Heath club in March 1914 where he remained until at least the 1930s (e.g. playing in the West of England Professional Championship of 1930). The club gave him a testimonial in 1939.

During his time at Frilford Heath he set up the clubmaking firm of Sherlock, Ray and Turner with J G Sherlock and Ted Ray.

He revamped the Goring and Streatley course in 1927-28, extending it to 18 holes. Between 1934 and 1938 he modernised the Gloucester club’s course at Brockworth. He also designed the Burford course in the Cotswolds in 1936 where his son Stanley was the first professional, first as a 9-hole course and, a year later, with 18 holes. John played in a foursome with his son to mark the opening of the full course in September 1937.

Stanley had been his father’s assistant at Frilford Heath and went on to become the first golf professional in Finland.

I believe he died in Abingdon in 1962.

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