| Administrative History | Alan Harman Spencer Turner was born in 1902 in Highgate, Middlesex, the son of the industrialist Joseph Ernest Turner, known as Ernest. Ernest Turner appears on the 1911 census as a "motor goods merchant", but after prospering in the motor industry he moved into production of aviation parts and then into textiles. Alan Turner went on to become Managing Director of the Ernest Turner Group of companies, which included one factory on Spa Lane in Derby.
Turner had his own eponymous opera company, which staged numerous productions in London in the 1920s and 1930s, before he relocated to Derby. In the Derby productions, workers from Spa Lane Mills often made up the chorus. The music was directed for some years by the conductor John Pritchard (1921-1989), who was also conductor of the Derby String Orchestra. Alan Turner provided his own English translation to some of the works performed, including "Der Lustige Krieg", an operetta by Johann Strauss.
Turner was a keen amateur cinematographer and in 1949 directed a short film, "Crown Derby", about the noted Derby china works. He also directed a film about the importance of mass in the Catholic faith, "The Sacrifice We Offer".
He was an enthusiastic proponent of "the Christian factory" and favoured the representation of workers on factory councils, as well as the social interaction of management and workers. A clipping from The Standard says of the Spa Lane Textile Mills:
"The 150 workers, only 15 per cent of whom are Catholics, take part without any compulsion in the occasional closed Retreats and in other acts of worship. The factory operates on a guaranteed wage plane. There is a profit-sharing system, a welfare department, a pension plan and free life insurance". (The clipping can be found in the final volume of this series, dated 15 June 1956. "The Standard" may be the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Diocese of Washington, United States of America.)
Turner was knighted in 1956 by Pope Pius XII for his work in "Christianising" the factory, being told "You have been outstanding in the promotion of the church's social teaching".
Alan Turner died on the Isle of Wight in October 1965.
For more information on Alan Turner, see the attached pdf version of the 2018 article by Andrew Lamb, taken from the pages of Vienna Music, journal of The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain, with the author's permission. |
| Custodial History | These records were donated to Derbyshire Record Office by a family member in April 2017. |