Hugh Thackeray Turner (1853-1937) was an architect by profession, and an amateur china painter. Hugh Turner was born at Foxearth, Essex, England.[4] His father, Rev. John Richard Turner, was a Church of England vicar from Wiltshire. He was apprenticed to Sir George Gilbert Scott, and then worked under his son. In 1888 he married April Powell, daughter of Thomas Wilde Powell of Guildford.
He founded the West Surrey Society and was a member of the Godalming Town Council from 1907 to 1910. He designed several notable houses and gardens, including Westbrook, Wycliff Buildings, The Court and Mead Cottage.
Turner's buildings included Wycliffe Buildings (1894), The Court (1902), and Mead Cottage in Guildford, Surrey. In 1899, Turner bought some land in Godalming, Surrey, with the aim of building a house. With the Arts and Crafts garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, he designed the Philips Memorial Cloister on the riverside in Godalming, commemorating the bravery of Jack Philips, a hero on board the Titanic in 1912.
In 1888, Turner married the embroiderer Mary Elizabeth Powell (1854–1907), the daughter of Thomas Wilde Powell from Guildford. Their daughter, Ruth, married George Mallory, the climber of Mount Everest who also taught at Charterhouse School.