Walter Robertson Johnston

Military Information

  • Date of enlistment: 1915
  • Place of enlistment: Dundee
  • Service no:
  • Rank: Lieutenant
  • Service Occupation:
  • Awards:
  • Regiment/Service: Royal Field Artillery
  • Unit/Ship: 112th Brigade,
  • Place of Death: France
  • Age at Death: 29
  • Date of Death: 06.09.1918
  • Burial Country: France
  • Cemetery: Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension
  • Grave/Mem Ref no: IV.B.3.

Personal Information

  • Date of Birth: 13.12.1888
  • Place of Birth: Balgray, Dundee
  • Address: Balgray Mains, Dundee
  • Occupation: Valuation Dept, Inland Revenue, Edinburgh
  • Mother:

    Charlotte Johnston (nee Kennedy), Balgray Mains, Dundee

  • Father:

    John Johnston, Balgray Mains, Dundee

  • Siblings:

    David, born 1879, John, born 1881, Peachy, born 1887 & Francis, born 1893, James, William, Charlotte, Helen (Nellie) & Catherine (Kitty)

  • Spouse:
  • Children:

More about Walter Robertson Johnston

Four of Walter’s  seven brothers served during the Great War. Gunner David Murray Kennedy Johnston, Royal Garrison Artillery was a P.O.W. but survived, Cpt (Doctor) John McPherson Johnston was a doctor with R.A.M.C. he also survived. Cpt Peachy Wilson Johnston, Royal Field Artillery was awarded the Military Medal during the war and also survived. Gunner Francis Johnston, Royal Garrison Artillery, who died of wounds November 1919. Both Walter and Francis are remembered on the Morgan Academy Roll of Honour.

Walter was educated at Morgan Academy Dundee. After school, he started an apprenticeship as an architect with Leslie Ower, the Dundee Architect. He did not pursue that however and trained as a property surveyor with Joseph Murray of Dryburgh. Immediately before the war, he was employed in the valuation department of the Inland Revenue Capital Taxes Office in Edinburgh. Initially he and his brother Peachy enlisted in the Dundee Territorial Reserve Artillery in 1915. Later after serving on home defence Walter was commissioned from the ranks to Lieutenant in the 321st Brigade, R.F.A. and then posted as a replacement officer to the 112th Brigade, R.F.A. in France on 25th January 1917. It is believed that he was gassed sometime in 1917, returning home to recover. Following his recovery he returned to France where he was killed in action during the 2nd battle of Bapaume on 6th September 1918.

Information and photo’s courtesy of Dundee Courier article 05.08.2017 & Francis’s great nephew Douglas Norrie.

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