DR. PRISCILLA TURNER is a product of St. Paul's Girls' School and of the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. December 1956: Election to the Gilbert Murray Scholarship in Classics, Somerville College, Oxford. Election to the Sophie Adelaide Turle Scholarship in Classics, Girton College, Cambridge. Award of St. Paul's Girls' School Leaving Exhibition in Classics. From 1957 to 1962 she read with success four Parts of the Cambridge Tripos, two Classical and two Theological. She was the recipient of numerous prizes and other awards: October 1957: Matriculation at Cambridge University, reception as a member of the foundation, Girton College. June 1959: First Class Honours in the Classical Tripos Part I. Award of the Richardson Reserve Prize for Classics (Girton College, Cambridge). Election to a Henry Arthur Thomas Exhibition (a University distinction) for Travel in Classical Lands. June 1960: Upper Second Class Honours in the Classical Tripos Part II. Graduation with B.A. (Hons.) Cantab. June 1961: Exemption from the Theological Tripos Part II (equivalent to a B. Div.). Summer 1961: Election to the Crosse Studentship (a University honour) for the Study of the Holy Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek. June 1962: Second Class Honours in the Theological Tripos Part III in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies (equivalent to an M. Div.). Summer 1964: Election to the Hall-Houghton Studentship for Septuagint Studies at Oxford University, 1964-66. October 1965-June 1966: Funded by the Pusey and Ellerton Fund. July 1996: Graduation with D. Phil. Oxon. Awarded the Gibson Prize for Theology (Girton College, Cambridge). During 1964-66 her research in Oxford was supervised officially by J.A. Emerton and briefly by W.D. McHardy, Regius Professor of Hebrew, with Professor G.D. Kilpatrick as co-advisor. Their views of the work were eventually articulated as follows: "The solidest thing of its kind on Septuagint matters known to me. It was ahead of its time." J.A. Emerton "A piece of exploration rare if not unique in the field." G.D. Kilpatrick The dissertation was examined in late 1970, and rejected early in 1971 on the basis of a Report of which her supervisor, by then Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, said that the Examiners "offered only a sketchy and inadequate justification for their verdict". There was at that time no appeal from such a verdict. It was astonishing to numbers of distinguished people who knew the work, but for decades there was no recourse. In 1995, with a modern appeal mechanism in place, Oxford granted re-examination with fresh examiners. These reached a very different verdict: with minor modifications such as could readily have been made a quarter of a century earlier, i.e. a longer Introduction and an expanded Bibliography, the work went forward in 1996 for the degree. Dr. Turner's life was radically altered by these events. Her offered and accepted September 1971 position on the UBC campus, teaching all the Old Testament Introduction and Classical Hebrew, was withdrawn in the light of the doctoral failure. She was 33. She never thereafter held a paid teaching post, and did unpaid church work instead.
