He was an inspiring lecturer and his tutorials and post-graduate supervisions were challenging and provocative as students were prodded and persuaded into thinking.
He served as part of the team that prepared the Interim Report on Post-War Reconstruction, which mapped out the Attlee government's programme.
Turner worked under Sir Walter Citrine, which developed his lasting interest in economic policy, trade union activities and management and industrial relations.
The nature of his research together with the world political conjuncture meant that he was very much in demand as an expert and consultant at the time of decolonisation.
As Hong Kong's transfer to China was looming, he was granted a last Leverhume Senior Fellowship from 1985 to 1988, to assess the labour force situation in the colony.
Through the years, on such complex and sometimes sensitive expeditions, he was accompanied by a team of younger assistants who have now become experts in their own right, such as Dudley Jackson, Keith Hart, Patricia Fosh, or Ng Sek Hong.
On the home front, Turner is famous for his work on the motor industry, for which he gathered around him a notable team, including Geoffrey Roberts and Garfield Clack, who co-signed the relevant book with him.