George Grey Turner

Who was George Grey Turner?

George Grey Turner was an English surgeon. He received his medical degree from Newcastle Medical School, later receiving a Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1903, and served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War. As a young surgeon, he travelled around the world, being received by the Pope, Benito Mussolini, the King of Italy and King Alfonso of Spain. Five years before his death, Grey Turner was made President of the International Society of Surgeons.

After the war, Grey Turner was briefly famous for performing one of the earliest operations to attempt the removal of a bullet from a soldier's heart. The bullet was never removed, but Grey Turner's surgery saved the patient's life.

During the following decades, Grey Turner worked with early cancer research, and anticipated the development of chemotherapy. In 1925 he published an optimistic work entitled "Some encouragements in Cancer surgery".

A type of bruising, Grey Turner's sign, was named after the surgeon.