Turner was born on June 7, 1929, in Richmond, London, England, to Leonard Hugh Turner, a Journalist, and Phyllis Gregory. He had a brother, Michael (who died shortly after birth), born in 1930, and a sister, Brenda. When Turner's father died in 1932, he and his sister moved to Canada with his Canadian-born mother. The family settled in her childhood home in Rossland, British Columbia and later moved to Ottawa, Ontario.