Short abstract
General practitioner and prison doctor who worked at the Maze at the height of the Troubles
Peter Turner was the senior medical officer at the Maze Prison in Belfast at the height of the Troubles. He arrived there from general practice in the Shankill Road, Belfast, and was immediately reacquainted with several of his former patients. He was taken hostage by several of them of different political persuasions on several occasions, always with the refrain: “Sorry, Doc, we've got to tie you up.” He never came to any harm, nor did his assailants generally get very far, such as in the failed mass breakout of 1976, in which he was restrained with a combination of sheets and bandages.
He was with the prison service during the burning down of the Maze on 16 October 1974, when he attended to the injuries of prisoners and prison staff alike, and the distressing years of the “Dirty Protest,” which culminated in the death of the hunger striker Bobby Sands on 5 May 1981, as well as the deaths of nine other prisoners. During his hunger strike Sands had been elected MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, attracting worldwide attention to his protest and forcing the Maze and its staff into the uncomfortable glare of the public spotlight.
Despite the dangers and the high profile of his work, Dr Turner found his time at the Maze (which is known to Republicans as Long Kesh) to be an enjoyable challenge. When he was obliged to retire from there at the age of 65 he returned to general practice, ending his career in the Catholic Falls Road, so near geographically but so far politically from the Protestant Shankill Road, where he began his working life.
Figure 1.
He was born Royston Campbell Turner to a Protestant family, but at an early age felt this was an inappropriate name and insisted on being called Peter. His parents, who were wealthy property owners and horse breeders, moved when he was young, but when he started courting he was delighted to discover that his wife-to-be's family lived in the house in which he was born.
He was educated in Hollywood, County Down, where he had a poor school attendance record, preferring to spend time at the stables. As a last resort, academically speaking, his father sent him to a crammer in Dublin from where the young Peter was accepted at veterinary college. Within a matter of weeks he had changed his mind and instead studied medicine at the College of Surgeons.
He qualified in 1944 and immediately joined the Royal Navy. The following year he was charged with receiving survivors of the Belsen concentration camp upon their arrival in the UK. The sights he witnessed—even though among survivors—were so horrific he could never bring himself to describe them.
At the end of his naval service Dr Turner returned to Belfast and, in those pre-NHS, pre-locum days, began to practise in predominantly Protestant eastern Belfast. Soon he went into partnership in Shankill Road.
Once the Troubles began life became somewhat dangerous. Dr Turner continued to answer his own late night calls, and would frequently have to venture into what could be extremely dangerous (for him) Catholic areas of the city.
Possibly a little bored with general practice he took up his post at the Maze in 1972. At that time it was a series of Nissan huts used as an internment camp (the infamous “H blocks” were only completed in 1976). He had two medical assistants and was required to attend to the needs of prisoners and staff alike, whatever their religious background or record of violence. Indeed, throughout his professional life Dr Turner successfully stayed away from politics and religion, and in so doing was liked and respected by members of all denominations and none.
Having been pensioned off in 1982 at the age of 65, he returned to general practice as a locum. Four years later he joined Dr Damien Beirne at what eventually became known as Falls Family Doctors, in Falls Road, Belfast. The introduction of new contracts for GPs in 1991 led to him being forced to retire again—an event he found distressing. For the next decade he reverted to locum work once more.
Where other general practitioners wore suits, Dr Turner never saw a patient without wearing a white coat, a legacy of his prison service days. He was a GP of great humour and witty asides; small, dapper and blessed with a full head of hair.
He met his wife, Katie, through their love of horses. Even into old age and after two hip replacements Dr Turner rode regularly. He was the owner of several race horses. In his younger years he had been a prominent amateur jockey.
He leaves Katie, four daughters, and a son.
Royston Cambell (“Peter”) Turner, former general practitioner Belfast and senior medical officer Maze Prison, Northern Ireland (b Northern Ireland 1917; q Dublin 1944), died from Alzheimer's disease on 1 February 2005.