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Blue Plaques
THE PECKHAM MAN WHO TOLD THE COUNTRY TO ‘GET ON THEIR BIKES’
28 January 2008
EDWARD TURNER'S father had seven children, but was so nervous at his latest son's birth he dropped him on the floor. Yet despite this early knock, young Turner would go on to lead the field in motorcycle engineering, creating designs that would be the templates of excellence.
Pictures: Mortons Media Group Ltd
After he was picked off the floor, the Turner family returned to their home in Bronti Place, Walworth. Then in 1913, when Edward was twelve, the family upped sticks and moved to Peckham Rye, where his father bought a light engineering works, which is said to have made the lighting conductor that graced Nelson Column.
With both his father and grandfather being engineers it was almost inevitable that he would be venture into this field, but he was to reach heights that neither of his elders ever did.
Having done a stint in the Navy, he left and worked with his family for a while, before purchasing Chepstow Motors on Peckham Road, using the money left over from his naval excursions.
Turner's small business ticked over for many years, but it was his drawing work that was turning heads. His designs included vertically stacked gears, and operating the camshaft through rockers. These ideas had not been seen before and led to the construction of his first bike, the Turner Special, which he built in 1927.
A year later and he began hawking his new square four engine design around manufacturers. BSA rebuffed his idea but another manufacture, Ariel, were impressed and picked it up.
Ariel was owned by Jack Sangster, who purchased Triumph in 1936, calling the new company Triumph Engineering Company. Sangster, impressed by his work with the square four engine, made Turner his General Manager and Chief Designer.
At this point Turner left his Peckham home and moved up to the Midlands to concentrate on redesigning the Triumph motorcycle line up.
One of the first bikes to be produced by Triumph under his guidance was the Speed Twin. The bike sold for £75 and became the benchmark that all other twins were judged on. It was tweaked and developed over the years and was in production for almost thirty years.
After a fall out with Sangster he left Triumph for a short period to join BSA, but returned and further models such as the Tiger 100 were made. It won the Manx Grand Prix in 1946, much to Turner’s disgust, as he despised racing.
Other models that followed were the Thunderbird, which was one of the first models that regularly hit speeds of 90mph.
After more boardroom shenanigans Triumph was sold to BSA, and when Sangster became chief executive, Turner once again became his lieutenant.
Both factories continued to develop motorbikes as separate entities, developing a friendly rivalry that helped Triumph maintain it brand of excellence.
The success continued but it was it was about to meet a new force in the industry, as the Japanese began to embrace the market. On visiting some of the factories in the Far East, Turner was said to be taken aback by the mass production taking place.
The threat of the Japanese was something that bugged Turner even after he retired in 1964. He remained at Triumph as a consultant and created a new design that he thought would counter the new threat to the British motorcycle industry.
He died in 1973, as the industry began to decline, with many companies not anticipating what Turner had seen and paying the price for it.
Turner was said not to be the easiest man to get along with, but wherever he went success followed and this was no accident. His designs were synonymous with excellence, and set benchmarks that stood the test of time.
His other trait was staying one step ahead of the industry and even before he died he was still trying to remain so. 
The boy from Walworth with brains to burn and a drive to succeed made the best bikes in the world, all emanating from his small shop on Peckham Road.
If you would like to vote for any of the nominees for the blue plaque e-mail vote4icons@southwark.gov.uk or call 020 7525 2000.
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Comments (7)
1. At 12:39 AM on 26 Feb 2008, erum wrote:
Amazing, the father of the famous Bonneville, Thunderbird, Tiger and Daytona models from Peckham.
Actors etc are ten a penny but a real life famous & sucessful British engineer - how many of those are there ?
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2. At 12:48 AM on 26 Feb 2008, erum wrote:
It was upon Turner's bikes that Hollywood stars rode such as Marlon Brando in The Wild One, Steve McQueen in The Great Escape and Richard Gere in An Officer & A Gentleman.
James Dean was photographed in a memroable series of shots by Phil Stern.
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3. At 08:29 PM on 26 Feb 2008, Phillip wrote:
Edward Turner was one of motorcycle engineerings geniuses at a time when British motorcyles dominated the world. He had the ability to design and engineer whole machines. This was not done by teams of engineers or computer simulation but by one mans exceptional ability. He truly deserves the Blue Plaque
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4. At 03:38 PM on 27 Feb 2008, tom reed wrote:
Edard Turner was resposible for many motorcycle designs and one of them the Triumph Bonneville is considered by many to be the most beautiful and popular motorcycles ever built.Turner and many of his motorcycles are true legends.He deserves the blue plaque. T R
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5. At 11:02 PM on 29 Feb 2008, erum wrote:
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc67/meriden4ever/4be2_1.jpg
for those that like actors, the photo shows Turner with Rita Hayworth on his Triumph Speed Twin and the USA Triumph importer, Bill Johnson
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6. At 11:59 PM on 29 Feb 2008, erum wrote:
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc67/meriden4ever/English002.jpg
There's a picture of another nominee -Henry Cooper- enjoying himself aboard one of Edward Turner's motorcycles at the Triumph stand in 1961-says it all, really
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7. At 11:09 PM on 19 Jan 2009, Ken Morey wrote:
Drivers will tell you that to see a cyclist in front of them is is worrying. To see one JUST, without special clothing the you head light illuminates is SCARY. Its not the smart ones who take no notice of traffic lights that worry me is the person who you can see. Then theres the ones with their precious child in a sort of bucket being towed buy the parent on a bike.
Cyclist scare me because I in my car could serious injury or even death if they make one mistake.
They are better off the road for good, it would save lives.
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