June 2002 Volume 83 Number 6 "serving the protectors"
The salt of the earth
By Brett Williams

Obituary

Many who knew former Police Association president, Paul Turner, have used exactly the same words to describe him: the salt of the earth. And, when he died last February, at the age of 86, the association lost of one its most valued elder statesmen.

Mr Turner, whose distinguished police career lasted for 42 years, served in the industrial arena from 1950 to ’60. During that time, he strove for – and later achieved – a groundbreaking overhaul of the police superannuation scheme.

In later years, he told current association president, Peter Alexander, why he had worked so hard to bring about such significant change.

He said he had one day called into a Thebarton foundry on police business and was shocked to find a retired former colleague there – hard at work. He learned that the aged ex-policeman had taken on the job of hard labour to supplement his then meagre superannuation.

In the 1970s, Mr Turner became the key negotiator in meetings with the public actuary and secured a welcome new deal, which allowed retired police to live with some dignity.

Poor superannuation had, before those days, forced many veteran officers to secure post-career employment.

“Paul thought just what a terrible thing that was,” said Mr Alexander. “He decided to do his best to rectify it. But, as well as superannuation, he was prepared to look at all welfare issues for police.”

This concern for others’ welfare was evident from the positions Mr Turner held with other organizations. They included the Leave Bank committee, the Sick and Accident Fund committee and the Police Widows and Orphans Association.

Mr Turner’s son-in-law and currently serving police sergeant, Michael Vale, said he always tried to improve the conditions of those who worked under his command.

“He stuck up for his men at work and he was always available,” said Mr Vale. “That was one of his big policies: ‘Come in and talk to me about anything’ – and people would.

“He had people come and discuss plenty of things with him – apart from police work – and he set them right. With the information he gave them, he changed the lives of a few people – for the better.”

But as a CIB and Homicide Squad detective, Mr Turner took a no-nonsense approach to his work. He brought some of the state’s most callous criminals to justice, and was widely known for his arrest of Rupert Max Stuart in 1958.

Stuart was suspected of the rape and murder of nine-year-old Mary Olive Hattam near Ceduna. Amid frenzied media coverage, he was charged, sent to trial and convicted. The Supreme Court imposed the death sentence, which the Playford government later commuted.

Stuart supporters later cast doubt on his guilt, and his case became the subject of a royal commission. But the British Privy Council – to which lawyers for Stuart appealed – upheld his conviction.

Mr Turner continued to believe strongly in Stuart’s guilt, and thought badly of his later release on parole. He also knew of and expressed interest in Black and White, a film based on the Stuart case and due for release at the Sydney Film Festival this month.

“Paul, and all the other police involved (in the Stuart case), had to live through that controversy,” said Mr Alexander. “That must have been difficult and involved a lot of pressure.”

But Mr Turner loved police work, and a career on the force was all he had ever wanted.

The son of a Prospect blacksmith and one of nine brothers, he had indured tough working-class beginnings. But he attended Prince Alfred College before he joined SAPOL as an 18-year-old in 1934.

He became a detective in 1949, worked in local CIBs and revelled in the camaraderie of the job. Promoted to commissioned rank in 1960, Mr Turner came to command great respect from those he led.

“People gave him that respect because of his abilities, and the way he treated them,” said Mr Alexander. “He was a person first and certainly never hid behind rank.”

Mr Turner was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1959 and the Queen’s Police Medal in 1969.

He won the Police Association presidency in 1957, after six years as a committee member and a short term as vice-president. He held office until he retired from the association in 1960. Mr Alexander said that, to his union work, Mr Turner applied the values of loyalty and team spirit.

Away from police work and unionism, he coached a church netball team and enjoyed the races, billiards and card games. His family, however, always remained his greatest passion.

After he retired as a chief inspector in 1976, he kept contact with serving officers through a shares syndicate that included retired police. He went to races less frequently and preferred to spend more time with his family, especially his grandchildren.

Mr Turner died of an aneurysm on February 6. His family and friends paid their last respects to him during a private service at Centennial Park on February 8. He is survived by his wife Erica, sons Kingsley and Michael, daughter Erica and six grandchildren.

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