Victor Turner

Sir Victor Alfred Charles Turner, CSI, CIE, MBE, SI (12 March 1892 – 16 October 1974 ) was an English-Pakistani civil service officer, statistician and economist, and one of the founding fathers of the Civil Service of Pakistan,

Early life and education

Alfred Charles Turner was born at 36, Campden Street, Kensington, London England on 12 March 1892 to Walter Charles Turner, a butler, and his wife Annie formerly Searle. His older brothers were Walter Edward Neal Turner, born 1886, and Robert Henry Turner, born 1889. Alfred's early education was at St Mary Abbots Higher Grade School, Kensington 1896–1904 and then he attended Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith 1905–1911. In the autumn of 1911, he went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge on an Open Scholarship to read Mathematics. He then became Inspector of Propellent Explosives at the Woolwich Arsenal with the rank of Captain. ) and went out to what is now Uttar Pradesh in 1920. Turner succeeded in establishing the installation of a paper currency mill, with the help of De La Rue plc., printing the first official rupee which carries his own signature, V.A.C. Turner. Sir Victor made several reforms in the Pakistan Civil Service, submitting a report to the Prime Minister with recommendations about the size of the Civil Service and high-lighting existing deficiencies in various ministries. After the assassination of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, Turner was removed from the government, and he moved back to the United Kingdom to take up an appointment as the financial adviser to the High Commissioner of Pakistan in London. He also served as the first Treasurer of the newly founded, UK-based Pakistan Society until 1969.

Later life

After leaving Pakistan, Sir Victor continued to visit it, advising the government on various economic issues. in Surrey, England, aged 82 and was survived by his widow Winifred Bessie formerly Howarth whom he married in 1957. He also left a daughter by his first marriage, Joan Goodall (taking her step-father's surname, married name Bond), in 1916 to Gladys Olive Alice Sindall and a son and a daughter by his second marriage to Gladys Blanche Hoskins in 1927.

Honours

Knighthood as a Knight Bachelor – 1947. Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE). Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI). Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). Sitara-e-Imtiaz.