Portrait of W.J. Turner (1889-1946), half-length, with his arms folded

Walter James Redfern Turner was born in Melbourne, Australia, but emigrated to England to pursue a career in writing, as both a poet and a biographer of musicians such as Mozart and Beethoven. He formed close friendships with a number of famous literary figures such as Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West and Siegfried Sasson.