Service and Sacrifice
by Jack Gilpin
The Gilpins
The Gilpins begat like the Israelites. The 1833 Seagoe Tithes Register has 21 of them holding 35 small portions of local land. How they were related God alone knows.
I first heard about George Gilpin from my father and I later read about him in a 1926 Seagoe Parish Magazine. He was born at Lowmills, next door to us, on 23rd July 1864, the fifth of the seven children of John and Elizabeth Gilpin. Their 10 acres fell to Nathaniel, the eldest son. There was no future for George so, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment. After soldiering for 38 years he ended up a Major with eleven medals, won in distant lands.
He established a military dynasty when his four sons joined him in the First War.
The eldest, Robert, was twice mentioned in dispatches before being killed in 1915.
The second, Major William John Gilpin, won the MC and a Bar.
The third, Captain George Ruddell Gilpin, won the MC and a Bar.
The youngest, Lieut. Frank Edward Gilpin, was fluent in Arabic, French, Russian and Turkish.
Four Military Crosses and an unusual fluency in languages - from 10 acres, 0 roods, 25 perches, or thereabouts! George married a Cornish lady and retired to St. Agnes in Cornwall where he became a county councillor.
The Cross our neighbours wore
He was a temporary neighbour, not of local stock. My wife Violet met him when she was a child and the Internet confirms his exploits. He came to live at Stonebridge, on the Portadown/Armagh Road, beside the stop where she caught the bus for school. He went nowhere on Sundays and people were curious about his denominational identity. Finally he turned up at the War Memorial on Armistice Day. He wore a Victoria Cross.
Captain Harold Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC
Captain ( later Lieut. Col. ) Harold Marcus Ervine-Andrews was awarded the VC for conspicuous gallantry on 31stMay/1st June 1940, when he led a defensive operation which delayed the German advance on Dunkirk. The records tell the story.
The Victoria Cross
Captain Ervine-Andrews took over about 1,000 yards of the defences in front of Dunkirk. For over 10 hours, notwithstanding intense artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire, and in the face of vastly superior enemy forces, Capt. Ervine-Andrews and his company held their position. When the enemy attacked at dawn he and his volunteers took possession of a barn from which he personally accounted for 17 of the enemy with his rifle and for many more with a bren-gun. Later, when the barn had been set alight, he sent back his wounded men in the only available troop carrier. He then led his remaining eight men back, swimming or wading up to the chin in water for over a mile. Throughout he displayed courage, tenacity and devotion to duty worthy of the highest traditions of the British Army. His magnificent example filled his own troops with the dauntless fighting spirit which he himself displayed.
Total evacuated from Dunkirk 330,000
Evacuated on 29th May/1st June 232,500
Ervine-Andrews had been ordered to do or die. His doing facilitated the evacuation of almost a quarter of a million men, two thirds of those evacuated from Dunkirk. Has there ever been a single action with a greater consequence?
It is almost impossible to reconcile the intensity of the 31stMay/1stJune engagement with the serenity of his photograph and his peace-time pursuits of breeding tropical fish and keeping pigs. He offered Violet fish but she had no aquarium. My friend, the late Ronnie Williamson, bought his pigs.
He came to Stonebridge some time after resigning his commission in 1952 but didn't stay long. Why he came and why he left is not known. Born at Keadue in County Cavan, on 29thJuly 1911, he, like George Gilpin, retired to Cornwall where he died on 30thMarch, 1995. His was the first VC of the Second War and he was the last surviving Irish holder of the award. I am not aware of any public recognition in Ireland. His East Lancashire Regiment remembers. His name is on a plaque in Blackburn Cathedral. His family donated his Victoria Cross to Blackburn Museum.
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Reach for the sky
This tribute to Squadron Leader Robert Wilkinson Turkington, DSO DFC and Bar is adapted from a Presentation by Jack and Violet Gilpin at Belleville Presbyterian Church in November 2007. Bobby Turkington was a brother-in-law of Betty Turkington, a member of Craigavon Historical Society. They are indebted to her for sharing her family treasures.
Frank McCorry has Turkington as a Derrytrasna surname since the 17th century. Wilkinson is a Derryinver surname now extinct.
Methodist records tell us about a William Wilkinson. In Bannfoot Church the men used to sit on the right and the women on the left.
In 1881 a new minister audaciously suggested that the people should sit as families. It was a step too far for William. He continued to sit apart from his wife, till death did them part.
I knew about our immediate neighbours who served in the Second War, but not about Bobby Turkington. The townland of Derrytrasna wasn't on our road to anywhere. Not till 1955 did I learn of him - at the Dedication of a Memorial Window in Bannfoot Methodist Church. The Inscription was special, very special - S/Ldr Robert Wilkinson Turkington, DSO, DFC and Bar.
Bobby with his older brothers outside the family home.
As a preliminary I looked for him in the Methodist records. He wasn't there. He couldn't be. Bobby was born in India on 13th June 1920, the youngest of the three sons of John and Mary Amelia Turkington. His father had been a Civil Engineer with South African and then Indian Railways before coming home to Crossways, Derrytrasna.
Bobby captained the Ist XV Rugby Team at Lurgan College and had an Ulster Schoolboys' Trial in 1938. He joined up on 17th September, 1940. He was an enthusiastic recruit.
Dear Mum
I went down to the Recruiting Office today and went through my Medical. The Recruiting Officer congratulated me on the way I came through - said one in two hundred got excellent all the way through - even eyesight which was perfect.
We are all very well up here, especially me after today's performance. Hoping everything OK down there. So Cheerio for the present.
From your very loving son,
Bob
After interview in England he was sent to Canada for training. He was in the General Duties Branch and then in Squadrons 43, 241 and 601; when he moved from one to the other is not clear.
His first three years were relatively routine - a time of steady promotion. His last 15 months, between early 1944 and the Spring of 1945 were sensational.
DFC 21 Jan, 44 (43 Squadron)
Bar to DFC 19 Sept. 44 (241 Squadron)
This officer has set a fine example of skill, determination and devotion to duty. He has completed a large number of sorties and much of the success achieved by the squadron can be attributed to his efficiency and resolution. Flight Lieutenant Turkington is a gallant and inspiring Flight Commander.
DSO 17 Apr 45 (601 Squadron)
Since the award of the Bar to the D F C this officer has completed many more operational sorties. He has a distinguished record as a close support leader. An outstanding squadron commander, S/Ldr Turkington has always shown great courage, brilliant leadership and unswerving devotion to duty.
Squadron Leader Robert Wilkinson Turkington, DSO DFC and Bar
The Squadron, formed as a Desert Air Force/Army Co-operation Unit, distinguished itself in North Africa and Italy, flying the famous single-engined Spitfires, sometimes modified as fighter-bombers.
Bobby expected to be demobbed shortly after V E Day on the 8th May, 1945, but he was retained in Italy on operational standby because the War with Japan was not yet over. He wrote to his mother to say that that he would be home in August. She re-decorated his room in welcome. When the telegram came on the 2nd August she expected it to herald his homecoming. Instead it notified her of his death in a flying accident on the 29th July. An RAF Document gives a witness report.
S/ Ldr Turkington took off in a Spitfire MK 423 on a cross-country flight to Naples. His engine was heard to cut out and he immediately turned to starboard in an attempt to return to the landing strip. The aircraft began to lose height and suddenly struck the ground with the nose and starboard wing. It then burst into flames.
F/Lieut Jones ( 601 Squadron ) saw the accident from start to finish and stated that S/Ldr Turkington probably died almost immediately. His body was recovered during the afternoon, after the heat had subsided.
Paddy Turkington was one of the most popular men in the Royal Air Force.
All ranks turned out at his temporary burial the following day at Mesne British Military Cemetery in a grave marked by an Oak Cross, made by his Squadron Carpenter. Bobby was later re-interred in the Commonwealth War Cemetery at Padova.
The tribute from Air Vice-Marshal R M Foster was immediate and fulsome.
4th August 1945
Dear Mrs Turkington,
It is with very great regret that I write to you to offer you my sympathy in the death of your son, Squadron Leader Turkington, who was accidentally killed a few days ago in this command.
As you must know by the decorations he has been awarded, your son had a magnificent record in the RAF. He was one of the most outstanding leaders in the Desert Air Force.
Besides being a most courageous fighter pilot Paddy also had the knack of getting on extremely well with his Unit, and whatever Squadron he was in, both as a Junior and latterly as a Commander, it was always a very happy concern as well as a very effective one.
Those who know about decorations confirm that a concentration of awards of such quality, in such a short time, is indicative of the highest valour.
DSO (left) with DFC and Bar
S/Ldr Robert Wilkinson Turkington D S O, D F C and Bar - a most courageous fighter Pilot, one of the most outstanding Leaders in the Desert Air Force, one of the most popular men in the Royal Air Force.
Bobby Turkington would be 88 now. He is remembered in the hearts of his surviving friends and in a Memorial Window in a little country Church.
Detail from memorial window at Bannfoot Methodist Church
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