Meg Turner, a dedicated nurse who spent over three decades caring for patients, has passed away at the age of 79. Turner’s nursing career spanned a wide range of roles, from her initial training at the Tunbridge Wells School of Nursing in 1964 to her later work as a ward sister at Dorchester Hospital and a matron at a residential care home.
Turner’s time as a ward sister at Dorchester Hospital, now known as Dorset County Hospital, provided her with a wealth of anecdotes that entertained her friends and family in later years. During one ward round that included the hospital almoner, a patient struggling to her feet and curtsying caught the consultant on the round off guard, showcasing the deference typical of Dorset. Another patient, the writer and broadcaster Kenneth Allsop, even corrected the English on his discharge form.
Born in Carlisle, Turner was the daughter of Clarise (née Moorhouse) and Jack Burgess, a decorator. She was raised in the small village of Five Ashes in East Sussex and attended Heathfield Secondary School before embarking on her nursing career.
It was at Dorchester Hospital that Turner met her husband, Paul, who was working in the hospital kitchen before going to college. The couple married in 1971 and later moved to southwest Wales in 1978, where Turner returned to part-time nursing in 1980, working on a care of the elderly ward at Withybush Hospital. After a few years, she left to become the matron of a residential home at Langton Hall in Fishguard. There, she gained a teaching certificate and became a trainer of care workers, lecturing at Pembrokeshire College and various training organizations.
Despite her increasing immobility in her later years, Turner remained actively involved in her local community, joining the Women’s Institute and the University of the Third Age. Her love of poetry, crafts, crosswords, and word games persisted almost until the very end, and she was bedbound with arthritis for the last three years of her life.
Turner is survived by her husband, Paul, their daughter, Saffrwn, and son, Edryd, as well as their grandchildren, Briallu, Eilir, Gwenllian, and Delun.