A native of West Hartlepool, Jimmy Turnbull arrived in Sydney around 1912. He played for North Sydney and enlisted on 18 August 1914.
Wounded at Gallipoli with gunshot wounds to shoulder and neck on 28 April 1915, he returned to Australia early in 1916. The Arrow reported on 23 September 1916,
Hats off to Jimmy Turnbull, North Sydney’s captain. Just after the advent of the war he heard the call and joined up. Alter a lengthy terms of service on the Peninsula he received a bullet wound in the neck, and was invalided home and subsequently discharged from the forces in the early part of this year. His attachment to the soccer game would not permit of his being idle, so he entered into the service of the game as a referee, but after a week or so of whistling he joined up with his old North Sydney Club and steered the club through the competition. The Prime Minister’s appeal for more men was taken to heart by the irresistable James, who again faced the enrolling officer. ‘Accepted.’ signified this official, so once more Jimmy signed on for Australia.
He was quoted in the Arrow in September 1916 as saying:
This world war between the patriots and the antis, gets one raw everytime one thinks of it. Australia and humanity demands that we of the Southern Seas should not be sluggards. Those who pretend to have the interests of Australia at heart can best serve her in the firing line. And while the wrangling is doing on let us who are returned Anzacs prove our willingness to again face the music. A hell worse than Gallipoli’s will not stop me from serving my country. But (this in a reproaching strain) it does teem hard that returned men should go forth to protect those who will not protect themselves.
He re-embarked on 30 September 1916. Taken as a Prisoner of War on 20 September 1917, Private Turnbull was nonetheless safely repatriated to Australia a year later. He lost no time in getting back to the game on his return, the Sun reporting on 13 May 1919 that “Jimmy Turnbull, who enlisted the second time, and returned to Sydney at the week-end, should strengthen the North Sydney backs by his inclusion. For several months he was a prisoner of war In Germany.”