Richard Turnbull was chief secretary of Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising.[5] In 1958, he succeeded Edward Twining as governor of Tanganyika.[5] Following the first elections to the Legislative Council, Turnbull appointed five members of Julius Nyerere's Tanganyika African National Union party.[5] At the end of 1961, Tanganyika became independent with Nyerere as prime minister and Turnbull as governor-general. He served for a year until Tanganyika became a republic in December 1962. He later became the penultimate High Commissioner of Aden in 1965.