My father, Julian Turner, who has died aged 93, was a veteran Green party member. His concern for the planet – and particularly his fears over global warming – led him to join, in the early 1980s, what was then the Ecology party, and he remained a member for the rest of his life. He played an active role locally in Sussex, until age and ill health left him largely housebound.
Julian Conchar Trenholme Turner, known to his family as Tren, was born in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire. His parents moved house often, due to his father finding teaching posts all over England, and eventually in India. At the start of the second world war, despite being a pacifist, Julian joined the Royal Artillery and served in Africa and Italy, where he spent two years on the run, being looked after by Italian families who often risked their lives to give sanctuary to British servicemen. He kept in touch with many of those people after the war and retained a lifelong love of Italy. He also spent time in prisoner-of-war camps in Poland. Despite this, he never hated the German people, just the Nazis.
Julian was always a gentle man but there were some things that he truly detested – Nazis, cold, windy weather, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, George Bush, Elvis Presley and Plymouth, where he lived briefly. After the war, he worked for Customs and Excise until his retirement in the mid-1970s.
His wife, Kathleen, whom he married in 1947, died in 1972. Julian is survived by his sister, Ruby, two daughters – Brenda and myself – and three grandchildren, Francesca, Lewis and Martin.
