While Turner always displayed great personal courage while under fire, he lacked the acumen for brigade- and division-sized tactics, and the men under his command during the First World War suffered grievous losses in several battles before he was moved into administrative roles.

On 7 November 1900, during a desperate rearguard action at the Leliefontein near the Komati River, Turner and Lieutenant Hampden Cockburn commanded a small group of men who repulsed a large force of Boers at close range, allowing two field guns to escape capture.

Turner was in command of a contingent of Canadian troops present in London for the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra on 9 August 1902.

In the chaos that followed, both Turner and Hughes sent erroneous messages back to Lieutenant General Edwin Alderson at divisional headquarters that their line had been broken and was in full retreat, when in fact the 3rd Brigade had not even been attacked yet.

Although Turner demonstrated great personal bravery when his brigade headquarters came under direct small arms fire and suffered several near misses from artillery,[10] he seemed unable to adequately cope with this new type of mechanized warfare nor with the demands of brigade-sized tactics.

[14] Historian George Cassar is of the opinion that, had Turner not been a popular Boer War hero and politically well-connected back in Canada, Alderson would have relieved him of command on the spot.

Alderson bitterly wrote, "I am sorry to say that I do not consider Turner really fit to command a Division and his name was not put forward by Sir John French, but Canadian politics have been too strong for all of us and so he has got it.

"[17] Turner was subsequently appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the King's Birthday Honours of June 1915,[18] and promoted to major general in September 1915, and given command of the 2nd Division when it arrived in France.

In addition, due to a miscommunication, his men were decimated by their own artillery,[citation needed] suffering 1,600 casualties[19] as German soldiers retook the land, negating the gains made at heavy cost just a few days before.

[26] In addition, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre[27] avec Palme and the Legion d'Honneur from the French government, and the Russian Order of the White Eagle with Swords.