Pierre Turquet was the son of André Turquet (1869-1940), French-born director of the London Diplomatic Service crammer Scoones", and Gladys Milnes (c1889-1977), head of French at Westfield College, London and professor of French at Bedford College.
He was also a British Olympic fencer, who competed in the team foil event at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he switched from history to science before completing medical training at the London Hospital. During World World War II he was a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, helping to develop the War Office Selection Boards.
He was subsequently seconded to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces and the French War Office.
After the war he was Research Psychiatrist at the Medical Research Council Social Medicine Research Unit, researching the intrapersonal and interfamily relations of young people with duodenal ulcers, before becoming a consultant psychiatrist at the Tavistock Clinic in 1952. From 1968 to 1973 he was Chairman of the Adult Department of the Tavistock.
He died on 27 December 1975 from a road accident in France.
