Henry Gyles Turner (12 December 1831 – 30 November 1920) was a notable Australian banker, writer and historian. He entered the banking profession as a clerk in London, and in 1855 emigrated to Melbourne where he advanced his career. In 1870 Turner was appointed general manager of the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd., a position he held until his retirement in 1901.
Under Turner's management the Commercial Bank expanded its business to become a major Australian bank. During the 1880s the colony of Victoria underwent a rapid and unrestricted period of real estate inflation and land speculation, during which the Commercial Bank extended loans to the land finance companies and speculators. The boom ended by the early 1890s and the subsequent fall in property prices led to bankruptcies, the collapse of building societies and a loss of confidence in the banking sector. By early 1893, with depositors increasingly withdrawing their savings, the Commercial Bank was on the brink of collapse and in early April it suspended deposit withdrawal payments. Under Turner's management the bank, in order to survive, was compelled to undertake a radical reconstruction of its finances, a process that took many years.
Turner had deep interest in the arts and, during his working life and into his retirement, he pursued a wide range of cultural interests, taking leading roles in associated organisations. He had a particular interest in literature, establishing and editing literary magazines and, in 1898, co-writing a volume surveying the development of Australian literature. Turner was a prolific writer on a range of cultural, historical and political subjects, producing articles, publications and delivering lectures. Turner's A History of the Colony of Victoria (in two volumes) was published in 1904.
Biography
Early years
Henry Gyles Turner was born on 12 December 1831 at Kensington, London, the son of a tailor, William Turner, and his wife Caroline (née Gyles).Family records, Ancestry.com. He was educated for four years at the Poland Street Academy in Westminster. When he was aged about fifteen, Turner was apprenticed to William Pickering, the publisher and bookseller.No. 17. - Henry Gyles Turner, Esq., "Bundalohn," Tennyson St., St. Kilda, Punch (Melbourne), 28 July 1904, page 24. In 1850 Turner delivered his first lecture before the St. George's Club in London, on the subject of 'American Literature'. In 1851 he edited a short-lived journal published by the St. George's Club called Our Magazine.
In about 1851 Turner began work in a lowly-paid position as a clerk with the London Joint-Stock Bank, with a starting salary of £60 a year.The General Manager, The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide), 5 April 1893, page 2. In September 1854 he clashed with his managers "concerning the method of promotion in the office" and was requested to resign. Turner decided to emigrate to Australia and managed to secure an appointment in the Bank of Australasia in Melbourne, through the bank's London headquarters. On 4 October 1854 he departed from Southampton aboard the screw-propelled steamship Argo and arrived at Melbourne in early December.Iain McCalman (1976), Henry Gyles Turner (1831–1920), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 3 January 2024.European Intelligence..., The Argus (Melbourne), 7 December 1854, page 5.
Melbourne
Turner joined the staff of the Bank of Australasia in Melbourne, initially undertaking clerical duties. Before leaving England Turner had become engaged to Helen Ramsay, who emigrated to Melbourne on a later voyage to join her fiancé. The couple were married on 28 September 1855 at South Yarra.Family Notices, The Argus (Melbourne), 1 October 1855, page 4.
After settling in the inner-city suburb of South Yarra, Turner began to pursue a range of cultural and recreational interests.Deaths, The Argus (Melbourne), 13 November 1860, page 4. On the voyage to Australia Turner had met and become friends with the actor and theatrical entrepreneur George Coppin. Turner joined a theatrical group called the Histrionic Society, with which he performed in city theatres and country towns.Royal Princess's Theatre, The Melbourne Leader, 27 July 1861, page 10. It was while working at the Bank of Australasia that Turner first met Marcus Clarke, a fellow-employee in the bank's stationary department.Henry Gyles Turner, The Bulletin (Sydney), 23 June 1904, page 15. In 1856 W. Sydney Gibbons, the editor of the monthly magazine The Journal of Australasia, offered Turner an opportunity to write for the journal.Pioneer of 92 Years Dies, The Herald (Melbourne), 26 July 1917, page 10. During 1856 and 1857 he had two serialised short stories published, 'The Captive of Gippsland' and 'The Confessions of a Loafer'. Turner was involved in the launch of the short-lived Australian Monthly Magazine, first published in September 1865. He also contributed articles to journals such as Melbourne's The Spectator and James Smith's satirical Touchstone, as well as The Colonial Monthly (the renamed Australian Monthly Magazine after it was acquired by Marcus Clarke in 1868).Marcus Clarke Centenary, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 1946, page 8.Henry Gyles Turner..., The Bulletin (Sydney), 9 December 1920, page 14.
As a young man Turner engaged in sports and recreational pursuits. On holidays he undertook activities such as climbing the You Yangs, a three-day walk along the Mornington Peninsula and a horseback ride to the Murray River and into New South Wales.
Banking and the arts
In about 1865 Turner was promoted to chief accountant at the Bank of Australasia. In August 1866 he was involved in the formation of the Banks Rowing Club, a boating club "consisting entirely of gentlemen engaged in the Melbourne banks".A new boating club..., The Argus (Melbourne), 29 August 1866, page 5. In September 1871 Turner was elected president of the club.On Wednesday evening..., The Age (Melbourne), 30 September 1871, page 3.
Turner was a founder, a leading contributor and first president of the Eclectic Association of Victoria, established in May 1867. The Association's stated object was "the unrestricted temperate investigation and discussion of any subject whatever of general social interest and importance".Eclectic Association of Victoria: Laws, Session of 1873-4 (1873), Melbourne: Stillwell and Knight; Trove website, National Library of Australia. On 2 September 1869 Turner delivered a paper before the Eclectic Association debunking spiritualism. The paper was later published as a twenty-page booklet.The air is beginning to be darkened..., The Argus (Melbourne), 15 September 1869, page 5.
On two occasions Turner received offers to become manager of branches of the Bank of Australasia in New Zealand, both of which he declined. In June 1870 he was about to take up the position of manager of the Brisbane branch of the Bank of Australasia, when the directors of the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd. offered him the position of general manager of that Melbourne-based institution, which he accepted.At a meeting of the board of directors..., The Argus (Melbourne), 30 June 1870, page 5. He began working there in July 1870, replacing George Valentine as general manager. The Commercial Bank had recently been the subject of extensive fraud by Thomas Draper, its chief accountant, and its balance sheet was in a "most unsatisfactory" state.Commercial Bank of Australia, Geelong Advertiser, 29 July 1870, page 2.Thomas Webb Draper, the late accountant..., The Argus (Melbourne), 21 May 1870, page 1. Turner was given the immediate task of making "a searching investigation" into the bank's finances and to "eliminate all bad and doubtful assets, in order that the shareholders might feel perfect confidence in the basis on which the future prosperity of the bank must be built". Under Turner's guidance the Commercial Bank began to build up its business and undergo expansion.Land Boomers – II, The Bulletin (Sydney), 12 November 1966, pages 76, 79. He was successful in attracting mercantile and farming interests to the bank and distributed shareholders' profits with caution. By the mid-1880s the Commercial Bank held deposits of £2,250,000, a reserve fund of £120,000, paid a ten percent dividend, and had opened branches throughout The Mallee, Goulburn Valley and the Western District of Victoria, as well as in London, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.
Turner was a member of the congregation of the Unitarian church in Melbourne, which was established there in the early 1850s.The New Unitarian Church, The Argus (Melbourne), 4 October 1886, page 7. By 1860 he held the role of secretary in the church organisation and by 1870 he was one of six elected lay preachers. In October 1870 Turner's younger sister Martha arrived from England and also joined the congregation. From about October 1872 Martha Turner also began conducting services in the Unitarian church as a lay preacher. In October 1873 Miss Turner was elected by the congregation as the permanent minister of the church, following the death of Rev. Henry Higginson six months earlier.At a special meeting of the congregation..., Leader (Melbourne), 22 November 1873, page 19.The Rev. Henry Higginson..., Illustrated Adelaide Post, 14 May 1873, page 3. By her election to the role Martha became the first woman in Australia to be ordained as a pastor of a church.Geoffrey Serle (1976), Martha Turner (1839–1915), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 6 February 2024.Martha Webster, Woman Voter (Melbourne), 2 September 1915, page 1.
Turner, together with Alexander Sutherland, Arthur P. Martin and others, established a literary magazine named The Melbourne Review with initial capital of £100.Suzanne G. Mellor (1974), Arthur Patchett Martin (1851–1902), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 4 January 2024.No. 47. – Henry Gyles Turner, Esq., Punch (Melbourne), 28 July 1904, page 25. The quarterly magazine, described as being "devoted to social, philosophical, speculative, and general literary subjects", was commenced in January 1876 and edited by Martin for the first six years."The Melbourne Review", Bendigo Advertiser, 26 October 1875, page 2. The first issue included articles such as Turner's 'An Episode in California Banking', describing the suspension and resumption of business of the Bank of California in 1875, and 'The Story of the Eureka Stockade' by Marcus Clarke.The Melbourne Review, The Argus (Melbourne), 5 January 1876, page 6."The Melbourne Review", The Queenslander (Brisbane), 22 January 1876, page 12. Turner served as editor of The Melbourne Review from 1881 to 1885.Mr. H. Gyles Turner, Observer (Adelaide), 4 December 1920, page 20.
Following the death of his mother in 1876, Turner left Australia in March 1877 for a visit to England and a holiday in Europe.Mr. Henry G. Turner..., The Argus (Melbourne), 24 February 1877, page 7.
In September 1881 Turner was elected president of the Victorian Rowing Association.Victorian Rowing Association, the Argus (Melbourne), 19 September 1881, page 6.