Frank Turner (gymnast)

[1] Born in the East End of London in 1922, Turner developed an interest in sports as a boy, training in table tennis, diving, football, boxing and gymnastics.

On leaving school in 1939 he worked as a bank clerk, but during World War II he was conscripted into the Royal Artillery in 1941.

[2] On being selected to captain the British gymnastics team in the 1948 Summer Olympics, Turner and the rest of the team had little if any experience of competing at an international level, and were unofficially coached by Helmut Bantz, a recently released German prisoner of war who had stayed in England as an agricultural worker.

He doubled for actors including Michael Bentine and Norman Wisdom when gymnastic stunts were required in films and television dramas.

Frank Turner died of cancer at his home in Bricket Wood in Hertfordshire in September 2010 aged 87.