Thomas Memory Turner (July 17, 1847 – September 2, 1917)[1] was an American composer, band leader, and music professor.

[2] He was once assistant director of the Stonewall Brigade Band of Staunton, Virginia, the United States's oldest continuous community band sponsored by local government and funded, in part, by tax monies.

Thomas Memory was a musician alongside his father in the 5th Virginia Infantry from April 1 to August 22, 1862, playing the B♭ cornet.

Memory Turner's job is listed as a goldsmith on his birth record.

[12] Turner returns to Staunton in November 1879, and lived on 12 Madison Street.

Turner fixed watches and jewelry as well as offered his services tuning instruments.

His son Claude died in Lewisburg, on September 5, 1889, at the age of just 14, falling headforemost into a vat of boiling water at the Greenbrier Cannery.

After the death of his wife and son, Turner again returned to Staunton, and lived at 213 W. Beverley St.[9] He became director of the Blackford Cornet Band of the Western Lunatic Asylum, a ten- or eleven-piece band composed of the male attendants.

[26] One account reads "The music of the Hospital Band sets aside solitude and relieves the monotony of asylum life, and has a wonderful effects in quieting the noisy and disturbed patients, besides being a source of great pleasure and enjoyment to the more quiet class, and is greatly enjoyed by visitors to the institution.