William Bradford Turner

William Bradford Turner
Medal of Honor recipient
Born	1892 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	September 27, 1918 (aged 25–26) Ronssoy, France
Buried at	Somme American Cemetery and Memorial
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1915 - 1918
Rank	First Lieutenant
Unit	105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Medal of Honor

William Bradford Turner (1892 – September 27, 1918) was a United States Army officer who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War I.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Turner lived in Garden City, New York, and attended St. Paul's School there for one year. In 1907 he transferred to Trinity-Pawling School, which had been founded by the former headmaster of St. Paul's, Dr. Frederick Luther Gamage. He was a graduate of Williams College, class of 1914, where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He joined the Army from Garden City in 1915.Turner is a direct decendant of the Europeans who settled New England in the early 1600s, including Massachuttess Governor William Bradford, and Dorothy Quincy, the wife of John Hancock.

By September 27, 1918, he was serving in France as a first lieutenant with the 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division. During an attack on that night, near Ronssoy, he and a small group of others became separated from the rest of their company. Turner led the group forward despite intense artillery and machine gun fire, several times personally attacking machine gun positions which were firing on his men. Although wounded three times, he continued to lead the group forward, capturing and clearing three lines of trenches. After reaching their objective, a fourth line of trenches, Turner was killed while defending the position from a German counter-attack. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor the next year, in 1919.