Born in 1870 he entered the medical school of St Thomas's Hospital in 1886, qualifying as a medical practitioner in 1892 with the Conjoint Diploma, and, having obtained the licence in dental surgery two years earlier, working at the Royal Dental Hospital. He was at one time consulting dental surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital and to the Royal Dental Hospital. He was President and Honorary Life Member of the Odontological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and was President of the Metropolitan Branch of the BDA. In 1917 he was awarded the John Tomes Prize and in 1947 on 17 July delivered the Charles Tomes Lecture on "Movements of the Teeth" subsequently published in the *British Dental Journal* 1948, 84, 1-9. Turner's father, James Smith Turner, also had strong connections with the Royal Dental Hospital and was partly responsible for the Dentists Act of 1878 and the founding of the British Dental Association. Joseph Turner died on 28 February 1955 at his home at Middleton-on-Sea aged 85, survived by his widow.