Bruce Turnbull

Having been educated at the Marchieston Castle School in Edinburgh, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Indian-born Bruce Turnbull was gazetted as a cadet into the Indian Army as a 19-year-old in 1900. He served with the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade for a year before becoming a lieutenant in the 23rd Sikh Pioneers. He was adjutant of a battalion of railway volunteers in India between 1911-14. Turnbull saw active war service on the North-West Indian Frontier in 1901-02, and 1908, and in Tibet in 1903-04. When World War I started, he joined the Seaforth Highlanders in Aldershot, and saw active service in France and Belgium, being injured in action twice, and was twice mentioned in dispatches. On returning to India, Turnbull was the country’s Inspector of Physical Training from 1922. When he retired from the post in 1926, he took up a position with the Edinburgh Education Authority, when he was also the organising secretary for Scotland on the National Playing Fields Association. Turnbull also took command of the 4th/5th (Queen’s Edinburgh) Battalion of the Royal Scots in 1928 until 1932, when he joined the 155th (East Scottish) Infantry Brigade until his retirement in 1936.

Turnbull played hockey in the Army and on 7 September 1925 became the first president of the newly formed Indian Hockey Federation. In 1928, along with Major Edward Ricketts, a fellow officer in the 23rd Sikhs, he helped coach the Indian team to their inaugural Olympic hockey gold medal in Amsterdam. The two men were also umpires at the Games and Turnbull officiated in the third-place play-off match between Germany and Belgium. He umpired in many club and international matches in Britain and served on the International Hockey Federation (FIH) as a representative of both India and Scotland. He was on the FIH Council 1928-32 and on the technical committee in 1932. He was also president of the Scottish Hockey Association 1935-37. Turnbull was made a Deputy Lieutenant for Edinburgh in 1935 and was honoured with the CBE in 1937. Golf, gardening, and stamp collecting were Turnbull’s favourite pastimes.