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XXIV. — The late George Turner. By John Chalmers 
Morton, Editor oJf the 'Agricultural Gazette.' 
There is not much of incident to be recorded in the quiet life 
of a home-loving countryman, however active and public- 
spirited he may have been. When one has spoken of industry 
and enterprise and success upon a farm ; of activity as a 
Guardian of the Poor, as a Churchwarden, perhaps as a Magis- 
trate, or as a member of a Highway Board ; of kindliness, 
good sense, and friendship as a neighbour ; of pursuits outside 
the mere business of agriculture — country sport, political 
activity, and the few other relations with the outside world 
which such a life possesses — the story is complete. 
So old a Member of the Society, however, as Mr. George 
Turner,* and one so well known both in its Council-room and 
in its Showyards, ought not to pass away without some reference 
to our loss, in the pages of our ' Journal.' In Mr. Turner's case 
the agricultural side of the memoir dominates the whole. A 
thorough countryman, he was energetic as a farmer — hearty, 
serviceable, and kindly as a neighbour — keen and clever as 
a sportsman : he had been especially useful as Chairman of 
the Highway Board of his district : he was traditionally loyal 
to the political party with which his family had been long 
connected, and so good a countryman was a first-rate county 
canvasser for his party : and his advice and help were invoked 
and gladly accepted, not only by the political leaders who 
appeared upon the scene at intervals, but constantly by neigh- 
bours of every degree. It was through the Royal Agricultural 
Society and its Council Chamber and its Showyards that he at 
length became known to his brother farmers generally. Looking 
back through the now long series of annual records, one finds 
his name as taking first prizes for Devons " bred by himself " 
so long ago as 1840 at Cambridge, and he was first at Shrews- 
bury in 1845 for his " pure Leicester sheep." Both flock and 
herd thus entered on a long career of success : and there is a 
certain wistfulness in the feeling with which, in the earlier 
volumes of the Society's ' Journal,' one who has attended nearly 
all its Meetings from the first reads the constant succession of 
awards to the same old name, beginning so early in the history 
of the Society, and continuing so long. 
Mr. George Turner was the second son of Mr. John Turner, 
of Cadbury, Devonshire. He was born in 1793, and educated 
at Tiverton ; and after living for a year or two at home, he 
* Mr. Turner was one of the original Members of the Society — i 
and he had been a Member of the Council since 1845. 
•elected in 1838; 
