Benjamin Johnston

Benjamin Johnston 1816

J1625) Benjamin JOHNSTON born in The Copse, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow and baptised on 20th October 1816. Qualified as a medical doctor in TCD, he was surgeon in Dr Steeven's Hospital, Dublin, before becoming G.P. in Ramelton (Rathmelton) Co Donegal. He married Emma MATURIN (111126) , his first cousin, in St Peter's church, Dublin on 11th January 1843. They were married by Benjamin’s brother in law, the Rev Robert Henderson. They lived in "Ayr Hill", Ramelton where their ten children were born - four girls and six boys. Benjamin & Emma moved to "Riversdale", Middleton, Co Cork where Benjamin died (inflammation of the lungs) on 2nd June 1876, aged 59. Emma died on 6th November 1890 at "Gorsehill", Ballybay, Co Monaghan. She also had an address in Dublin : 38 Upper Rutland St.
J16251) Katherine Emma JOHNSTON born in Ramelton, Co Donegal, 4th February 1844, she was baptised immediately due to her state of health. She was "brought into the church" on 7th July 1844. Her godparents were Rev Edmund Maturin, Catherine Johnston and Anna Maturin.
Katherine was an artist and spent a lot of her time in Italy. She died on 29th September 1887 at the Holyhead Hotel in Anglesea. Late of Stranorlar, Co Donegal, she also had an address in Dublin, 3 North Summer Street.

J16252) Emma Maturin JOHNSTON, born in Ramelton on 24th June 1845. She remained a spinster and lived with her brother Benjamin & family in Listowel Co Kerry. She died in Listowel on 23rd September 1898 and is buried there.

J16253) Elizabeth Graydon JOHNSTON, born in Ramelton on 26th December 1847, she was the only daughter of Benjamin & Emma to marry. She was living at 38 Upper Rutland St, Dublin at the time of her marriage to Nathaniel Thomson Dale, a widower, on 28th July 1884. They were married in Chorlton upon Medlock in Lancs. Witnesses : William Woods & Hannah J. Woods. Nathaniel was married previously to Henrietta Ryan (7th October 1874 Dublin). Elizabeth died on 19th June 1907 (TB) at home, "Ardnehue" Howth, Co Dublin.

J16254) Letitia JOHNSTON born in Ramelton on 13th August 1848

J16255) Benjamin Maturin JOHNSTON born in Ramelton on 31st October 1849. He worked in the Bank of Ireland, in Tralee Co Kerry, Castleblaney Co Monaghan, Ballybay Co Monaghan, Dundalk Co Louth, before founding the Bank of Ireland in Listowel, Co Kerry. He married Christina STAPELTON, in Newcastle West, Co Limerick, on 17th February 1876. Christina was born on 28th December 1849 in Jersey , Channel Is, daughter of David STAPELTON, Quartermaster in the Royal Navy, and Christian MAGILL, (see MAGILL). Benjamin & Christina retired to Malahide, north Co Dublin. He died on 8th November 1928 and she died on 27th June 1933. They are both buried in St Andrew's Church graveyard, Malahide. Benjamin & Christina had 2 sons & 5 daughters :

J162551) Benjamin Charles Maturin JOHNSTON, born 3rd December 1876 in Tralee, Co Kerry. He was Manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, with postings in Tientsin and Peking, China, in Hong Kong, in Ipoh, Perak, Federated Malay States and in Manilla in the Philippines.
He married Frances Elizabeth (Fanny) SANDES in 1909 in Hong Kong. Frances was born on 25th August 1869, daughter of the Rev Samuel Dickson Sandes and his wife Sophia Julia nee Besnard. Benjamin Charles died on 21st November 1945. Fanny died on 12th June 1953. They are both buried in the Parish Church graveyard, Orford, Suffolk. They had two children :

J1625511) Benjamin Stephen Besnard (Stephen) JOHNSTON, born in Ardfert, Co Kerry, on 19th September 1912. Stephen married Joyce BARON (born 1908) in St Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore on 13th March 1937. Joyce was the daughter of Dr & Mrs H.N. Baron of Orford, Suffolk.
Stephen had a distinguished war record flying “Pathfinders” in the RAF. He was awarded the DFC and the AFC, Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Force Cross.
Before and after the war, Stephen was a Rubber Planter in Bahau, the principal town of Jembol district in Negeri Sembilan, Malaya, working for Dunlops. He was murdered by Communist terrorists on 17th August 1951. Joyce came back to live in Orford. She died in January 2001 and is buried in the Parish Church graveyard in Orford. Stephen & Joyce had two children.

J1625512) Elisabeth Sophia Christina (Betty) JOHNSTON – born 7th February 1914 in Ipoh, Perak, Federated Malay States. Betty married John Withers RUSSELL (born 1906) in Singapore on 25th September 1937.

John was a Chartered Accountant and worked for Dunlop Malayan Estates.
In the Second World War, when the Japanese attacked, John managed to get Betty and their two children down to Singapore and on to a ship which had just arrived with Australian troops. John immediately enlisted in an Artillery Regiment. Betty and the children landed in Perth, Western Australia. From there, they got to Sydney where they managed to get a passage on a small passenger-carrying cargo boat, all the way to Belfast and from there across to her parents’ home in Orford. Betty and the children spent the rest of the war there. John miraculously survived and returned to England nearly four years later. The family went back to live in Malacca after the war and returned to England in 1951. John continued to work for Dunlops in London until he retired to Orford in 1963. He died in April 1983 and is buried in the Parish Church graveyard in Orford. She died 8 September 2008. John & Betty had two children.

J162552) Christina Emma (Ina) JOHNSTON, was born on 11th April 1878 in Tralee, Co Kerry. She married Dr Arthur STANLEY, on 5th August 1903 in Listowel, Co Kerry.
This was a double wedding with Ina’s sister Alice marrying Dr Robert Cox. He and Dr Arthur Stanley were Medical Officers in Shanghai. When Robert Cox came back to Ireland for the wedding, he brought Arthur Stanley with him to be his best man. Arthur fell in love with Ina, and they were all married on the same day!
Arthur was born in 1868 in Dalham, Suffolk, son of Walter & Hannah STANLEY. His father was a Supervisor of Inland Revenue. The family moved around, depending on Walter’s postings, Dalham, Truro in Cornwall and Bradford, Yorkshire. Arthur was educated at Truro, the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, Leeds’ University and St Mary’s Hospital, London. He graduated M.B. London in 1892 and M.D. the following year. Arthur was appointed in 1898 as the first full-time Medical Officer of Health of the Foreign Settlement of Shanghai, and became its first Commissioner of Public Health. He founded a Pasteur Institute, the first under British control. He acquired the technique of antirabic treatment in Kitasato’s laboratory in Tokyo. In 1911 he was a member of the commission appointed to investigate the epidemic of plague in Manchuria.
Beyond his professional work, Arthur Stanley was an accomplished student of Chinese Art. For many years, he was curator of the Museum of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Arthur & Ina settled in Hampstead when Arthur retired from Shanghai in 1921. He died on 28th March 1931, aged 62.
Ina died on 15th September 1957. She is buried in Rickmansworth cemetery, Herts., England. They had three children :

Brian STANLEY, born 29th May 1904 in Shanghai, China. He was christened in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Shanghai on 8th September 1904. Brian was a medical doctor.
He married Margaret Mary (Rita) CRONIN on 19th April 1934. Rita was born on 19th July 1907. Brian died on 8th July 1990 in Hounslow and she died on 25th June 1983 in Hatfield. Brian and Rita had three children.

Sheila STANLEY, born 29th May 1905. She married David Raymond Read (born 23rd August 1909) in 1950. Sheila died on 2nd July 1979.
David remarried on 20th September 1980 to Marion June BAILEY. David died on 7th October 1985.

Reginald (Rex) STANLEY,born on Christmas Day 1906. He married Doreen ANDREWS on 5th March 1938. Rex died in 1990 and Doreen died on 24th October 2006. They had four children.

J162553) Mellicent Kathleen Lucy Ethel (Lucy) JOHNSTON born on 28th October 1879 in Castleblaney, Co Monaghan. She married Dr Leslie Wren CROSBIE, Ballyheigue Castle, Ardfert, Co Kerry. The marriage took place in Listowel on 9th December 1897.
Leslie Crosbie was the son of Pierce CROSBIE and his third wife Margaret née Wren. He married firstly Agnes, widow of Thomas Dickson Davenport, by whom he had three sons: Fitzgeorge Bateman (died Oct 1905); Pierce Leslie (1878-1965); Douglas Edward (1880-1953).

Leslie died in Malahide on 31st October 1922, aged 79. Lucy died on 8th September 1961. They are both buried in St Andrew's Church graveyard, Malahide, Co Dublin. They had one daughter :

Margaret Lucy Alice (Alice) CROSBIE, born 1898. She was educated at the French School in Bray. She was a very competant horsewoman who took part in the Dublin Horse Show. A talented woman, art crafts of all sorts, sewing & tapestry, piano & music, with a very adventurous spirit.

Alice married Samuel Dickson (Dick) SANDES at St John’s Church, Umtali, Rhodesia in 1926

Dick was born in 1899 on the Island of Texada, Van Anda, between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia where his father, also Samuel Dickson SANDES, was employed as a draughtsman on a copper mine. When his mother died in 1904, Dick was taken back to England to go to school. He tried to run away to sea but was brought back and put on a training ship and in 1915 he was in the Navy as a midshipman. Dick then joined the British South Africa Police and served with them until 1948.

After their marriage in 1926, Alice & Dick lived in Rhodesia, leading a very nomadic lifestyle between small towns and the huge expanse of the Rhodesian bush, Salisbury and Gatooma, then Fort Victoria and Nuanetsi. The latter is a large wild area situated some 150 miles from Fort Victoria, now Masvingo, between the Lundi and Limpopo rivers. Nuanetsi consisted of a native commissioner’s office and a police camp. There were no roads, shops or amenities and supplies were transported by bus, mules and horses. Thatched mud huts and canvas tents were provided for living quarters. The heat at Nuanetsi was unbearable, malaria rife and the area infested with wild animals. Despite everything, Alice loved this life-style.

Alice died of tuberculosis in Fish Hoek, South Africa in 1933. She was on her way back to Ireland with Lucy, her mother. She is buried in Muizenburg Cemetery in Cape Town. There is a memorial inscription on her parents’ grave in Malahide, Co Dublin.

Dick married again in 1933, to Joan AIREY. They had two children. After the Second World War, Dick retired from the BSAP and joined the Historical Monuments Commission as Curator of The Great Zimbabwe Ruins and also became Warden of two National Parks. When he left the National Parks in 1959, he became security doorman at the House of Parliament whenever it was in session, while always looking after his farm. His wife Joan died in 1979, and Dick died in November 1984 in Johannesburg. Sincere thanks to Dick’s daughter, Allison, for all her help in compiling this chapter of the Johnston Story.

J162554) Edith Bertha Violet Alice (Alice) Johnston, born on 20th October 1881 at "Agherlane", Ballybay, Co Monaghan. She married Dr Robert Hanham COX in Listowel, Co Kerry, on 5th August 1903 (double wedding with her sister Ina).
Dr Cox came from Dundalk, Co. Louth, son of John & Mary Ann Cox, née Mouritz, qualifying as a surgeon at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin in 1886. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed Medical Officer of the Chinese Customs. Dr Cox, with his brother, Dr Stafford Mouritz Cox, pioneered the use of saline injections in the treatment of cholera when he was in China.
Robert and Alice had 7 children. The 5 girls were born in Shanghai where Dr Cox was the Port Health Officer. It was their chinese Amah (nanny) who called them 1,2,3,4 & 5 in Chinese, and the names stuck ! The family returned to Ireland in 1911 and settled in Howth. On the outbreak of the First World War, Dr Cox joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. During his retirement, he devoted his time to private scientific research.
Dr Cox died in November 1939 and Alice died on 27th April 1966. They are both buried in St Fintan's graveyard, Howth, Co Dublin.
Kathleen COX, Ahdo, born 2nd July 1904 in Woosung, Shanghai, China. Kathleen was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin and then at the Metropolitan School of Art. She won the Taylor Prize for the first time in 1925 and again in 1926 and 1927. Oliver Sheppard, her master of sculpture, was clearly a major influence on her artistic development. She opened her pottery studio at no 7 Schoolhouse Lane, off Molesworth St in Dublin. With her college friend Stella Rayner, Kathleen fired her pottery in a small electric kiln, the first of its kind in Ireland. During the mid-1930s, she gradually stopped making pottery, feeling very strongly that pottery should be useful and not merely ornamental. With this sense of futility, Kathleen smashed all her moulds and closed down her studio and, from then on, avoided talking about her work.

In 1937, she married Alan Gordon PALMER and moved to London. Alan was a conscientious objector and they spent the war years running a farm at Meopham, Kent. In 1950 they returned to London. Kathleen wrote and illustrated a book for children called “A Story of Stories” about the great religions of the world, under the pen name C.M. Kay.

Kathleen died in London in September 1972 and Alan died in 1996. They had two daughters.

Moira COX, Ahnee, born about 1906 in Woosung, Shanghai, China.
During the Second World War, Moira or Ahnee joined the Land Army. Back in Dublin afterwards, she was a medical secretary and was very involved in the art world, working in an Art Gallery in Dawson St. She enjoyed painting and making pottery.

Doreen Primrose COX, Ahsae, born about 1907 in Woosung, Shanghai, China. Ahsae married Daniel WHERRY in 1954. Danny was the youngest son of Joseph Wherry of Dungannon. He was a talented actor, took part in several productions in London, and appeared in a number of films. His family also owned the Northland Arms Hotel in Dungannon.

Danny died very suddenly in London in April 1955, aged 45, just six months after their marriage. He was cremated and his ashes brought back to the family burying ground in Newcastle, Co Down.

Ahsae was well-known in Howth and Malahide as a dog-breeder. She won numerous prizes with her poodles. She died in April 1987. She and Danny had no children.

Eileen Doris COX, Szesze, born 1909 in Woosung, Shanghai, China. Szesze married Robert James (Robin) CHILLINGWORTH in June 1942.

Robin was born on 2nd October 1917, son of Henry & Ina Chillingworth. He qualified as a Civil Engineer from Trinity College, Dublin. During the Second World War, he worked for the Air Ministry in Northern Ireland, building runways for military aircraft. He was due to be transferred to Tripoli when peace was declared … During this time, Szesze worked as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse in a military hospital in Belfast.

After the war, Robin was Town Surveyor in Portstewart before returning to Dublin in 1954. He was involved in the building of the dry docks in Dublin port. He then joined Sound Systems until his retirement.

Robin died in March 2000. SzeSze died on 6th September 2008, aged 99. They had three children.

Sheila Patricia COX, Ahung, (Patsy) born about 1910. Patsy married Captain Reginald H. MARTIN, East Yorkshire Regiment, 4th son of T.S.W. Martin of Ballygorell, Co Wicklow. The marriage took place in May 1932, in Howth Parish Church.

They had two children.

Robert B. D. COX, (Bobs), born about 1912 in Howth, Co Dublin. During World War II, Bobs was chauffeur to the Lord O’Neill in the desert in Africa. He spent most of his career with Unidare as an engineer.

In 1952, Bobs married Adrienne McDOWELL, eldest daughter of Oswald McDowell of Churchtown, Co Dublin. Bobs died on 3rd April 1983 and Adrienne on 4th January 2019. They are both buried in St Fintan's graveyard, Howth, Co Dublin.

Bobs & Adrienne had a daughter.

Shaun Maturin COX, born about 1914 in Howth, Co Dublin. He qualified from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1934 with a degree in Experimental Science. Shaun married Marjorie Ethel STRONG-HECKLES on Friday 13 Nov 1936 at St Nicholas' church in Durham; to ward off any bad luck the couple immediately walked under the pictured ladder. Marjorie was the youngest daughter of Lynn Strong-Heckes, Durham. Shaun was Manager of J.A. Jobling & Co, Sunderland (UK manufacturers of Pyrex glass) and was awarded an OBE on 9 Jun 1949 for his research into the manufacture of coloured pyrex. He died in 1979 and Marjorie in 1997. They are both buried in Harton Cemetery, South Shields.

Shaun & Marjorie had three children, of whom :

Nigel Shaun Maturin COX was born in September 1937 in South Shields. Nigel was a computer engineer and worked in the Laboratory in Newcastle- upon-Tyne University. He wrote several books : The Computer and the Library ( the role of the computer in the organization and handling of information in libraries) ; The Indexing of Records in the Public Record Office.

Nigel married Christine MAULE in 1965 and they later divorced. Nigel died in Worcester in June 2000.

Noel COX – born and died 3rd Quarter 1940

J162555) Katharine Elizabeth Alice (Daisy) JOHNSTON, born 5th September 1883 at "Gorsehill", Ballybay, Co Monaghan. She married Thomas ARMSTRONG in Listowel, Co Kerry on 7th March 1905. Daisy died of TB on 18th November 1921. She is buried in Listowel.
Thomas had a Toffee Factory in Listowel for some years and on the death of his wife, he moved to Blackrock, Co Dublin. The family then went to England, where Thomas bought and sold large country houses with land. He had a large Elizabethan farm house near Gatwick called Rowley Farm for a few years. He was a gentleman farmer and had a champion Jersey Herd. In his last years, Thomas lived in a flat in Tunbridge Wells where his daughter Lucy looked after him. He died on 29th July 1962, aged 87, and was cremated in Tunbridge Wells.
Katharine & Thomas had five children :

John Reay ARMSTRONG, born on 8th July 1906,
Died 24th February 1909.
Walter Johnston ARMSTRONG, born 3rd July 1907.He married Enid Constance WHISHAW on 1st October 1930. Walter died on 28th March 1982. They had a son.

Katharine Ethel ARMSTRONG , third child and eldest daughter of Katharine & Thomas Armstrong, born 28th February 1910. Ethel was bridesmaid at her aunt Stella's wedding in 1920. When her mother died in 1921, she was sent to boarding school in Huyton just outside Liverpool until her father moved from Listowel in Co. Kerry to Haslemere in Surrey.
At Huyton, aged 18, Ethel was selected to be one of the "daughters of the Empire" and went along with about 20 other girls from other schools on a trip across the Atlantic to Canada, and then across Canada staying with various families until they got to Vancouver.

After school, she went to a domestic science college in London for a couple of years and then opened tea rooms in Bagshot, Surrey called the Queen Anne House. It was very successful and she made hundreds of scones every day before it opened !
She left there when she married Robert Howard WINDSOR in May 1938.

Robert was born in Dublin, Ireland in March 1900. He joined the RAF in 1918 and after the war he had his own aerial photography business. At the outbreak of the second World War, Robert joined the RAF again and he & Ethel moved to Knaphill in Buckinghamshire as Robert was posted to Bomber Command at High Wycombe where he worked as a photo interpreter, identifying targets for the bombers. He was then sent to Malta where he spent most of the rest of the war, returning via Sicily and following the American Army up through Italy. This was difficult for Ethel as, most of the time, she did not know where he was stationed.

Robert died in September 1990 and Ethel in February 1998. They had two children.

Lucy Helen ARMSTRONG, born 4th May 1911 . She married Kenneth Ian (Kim) McCREA on 29th June 1937, at the British Consulate in Helsingfors, Finland.
Kim was in the North West Frontier Police, India (now Pakistan) from 1928 to 1947. He was with the British Diplomatic Service in Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya and Cyprus from 1948 to 1954 and then Deputy Chief Constable with the Air Ministry Constabulary from 1954 to 1971.
He died in January 1990 and was cremated in Bath.
Lucy died in March 1994 and was cremated in Uckfield, Sussex. Lucy & Kim had three children.

Margaret Aline ARMSTRONG, born 29th February 1913 in Listowel, Co Kerry. She died on 29th May 1913.

J162556) Henry Vassal JOHNSTON was born on 30th April 1889, at "Gorsehill", Ballybay, Co Monaghan. He died in February 1891 and is buried the Church of Ireland graveyard in Ballybay.

J162557) Zina Margaret Estelle (Stella) JOHNSTON youngest daughter of Benjamin & Christina Johnston, born in Dundalk, Co Louth on 17th April 1892. Stella lived in Listowel, Co Kerry in her childhood before moving to Malahide, Co Dublin where she married Richard Isaac Ronayne BEAMISH on 30th December 1920 in St Andrew’s Church.

Richard was born in Little Island, Co Cork in 1889, elder son of Abram Beamish & his wife Sarah née Ronayne. He was educated at the King’s Hospital, Dublin, of which he was subsequently elected a governor. On leaving school he joined the Provincial Bank of Ireland before, in 1912, leaving for India to join the Bank of Bengal which was amalgamated into the Imperial Bank of India in 1921. He remained with the bank for 30 years during which time he & Stella lived in many parts of India (Ambala, Cawnpore, Dacca and Calcutta) & Burma (Rangoon). On returning to Ireland and Malahide in 1942, Richard became closely identified with many Protestant charitable & church activities in Dublin.

Richard died in January 1959 and Stella in December 1968. They are both buried in St Andrew’s graveyard in Malahide. They had two children :

Daisy Jane Christina BEAMISH was born in October 1921 in Cawnpore in India and spent her early years there. She came back to Ireland to attend secondary school at the French School in Bray, Co Wicklow, staying with cousins during the short holiday breaks, returning to India for the summer holidays. The outbreak of war in 1939 prevented her from spending her “coming out year” in Calcutta.

After school, she took a job in a Plant Nursery in Dundrum, Co Dublin and later worked for a stockbroker in Dame St, Dublin. Daisy was also a very keen gardener and golfer. She fundraised for the RNLI and the Guide Dogs for the blind and received many accolades for her work.

Daisy married George Henry BURROWS in St Andrew’s Church, Malahide on 9th August 1944. George was born in Newbliss, Co Monaghan on 28th November 1908, son of William Burrows & his wife Catherine née Keys. He spent his childhood in Drogheda and after school joined the Drogheda Independent Newspaper. He moved to Dublin to join the Irish Times where he came a sub editor and had a long career in journalism. He contributed to The Angling News column for more than 50 years and was also a radio journalist with Radio Éireann giving the Topical Talk after the lunchtime news from 1956 to 1967.

George died in November 1998 and Daisy in December 2007. They are both buried in St Andrew’s graveyard, Malahide. Daisy & George had four children.

Nigel Ronayne BEAMISH was born in Ambala, India on Christmas Eve 1922. He was sent back to Ireland to attend prep school at Aravon, Bray, where he was Head Boy in 1936 and then to secondary school at St Columba’s College, Rathfarnham. On leaving school, he enlisted with the RAF in 1941. After training in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, he saw active service in the RAF Bomber Command as a Halifax bomb aimer and was shot down behind enemy lines over Belgium on a mission in August 1944. He saved his life on that occasion by parachute thereby becoming a member of the Caterpillar Club. He was subsequently captured and interned as a POW but he escaped from the train bringing him and other POW’s back to Germany and made an eventful journey back across Allied lines and ultimately to London.

After the war, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant, working initially with Kennedy Crowley. From there he was invited to join Edward Dillon & Co, a firm of wine merchants in Dublin, where he spent the rest of his professional career. He married Dr Anna Johnston (no relation to the Johnstons on his side of the family) in the First Presbyterian Church, Armagh on the 1st April 1950. Nigel died in January 1993 and is buried in St Andrew’s graveyard, Malahide. Nigel & Anna had three children.

J16256) Henry Maturin JOHNSTON, born in Ramelton on 24th January 1851. He qualified as a medical doctor from Queen's University, Belfast in 1872 and practised as a G.P. in Stranorlar, Co Donegal. Click HERE to go the story of how the IRA commandeered his car, later enshrined in the rebel song "Johnston's Motor Car". He married Mellicent Agnes Blennerhassett STAPLETON, on 2nd January 1879 in the Church of Ireland, Muckross, Castleblaney, Co Monaghan. Witnesses : Benjamin & Christina Johnston. (Christina & Mellicent were sisters). Mellicent died on 17th June 1903, (brain tumour), aged 52. She is buried in Stranorlar, Co Donegal. Henry & Mellicent had 6 children :

J162561) Benjamin JOHNSTON born in Stranorlar, Co Donegal on 20th April 1880. He had a military career : 54th Company of Ulster Imperial Yeomanry, South African War. First World War in racks of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Canadian Military Forces). Subsequently commissioned in North Irish Horse. Benjamin died in Canada in 1950.

J162562) Christina Letitia Aileen (Aileen) JOHNSTON was born on 22nd June 1881 in Stranorlar, Co Donegal, second child and only daughter of Dr Henry M. Johnston and his wife Mellicent. She married Edward Humphrey (Teddy) BARTON on 11th February 1911.
Edward was born in 1884,fourth son and fifth child of Colonel Baptist Johnston Barton & his wife Isabel née McClintock. He was educated at Scaitcliffe School near Windsor and later at Highgate School, before going to an engineering college at Seaford.
He was adjutant in the Donegal Militia when it was disbanded shortly before the 1914-1918 war. He served with the 10th Inniskillings in France for the duration of the First World War. When fighting in the trenches, he noticed the waste of food and responded by organizing the keeping of two pigs behind the lines !

They had four daughters, Kitty, Isabel, Mella and Rosemary. After the war, Teddy returned to Donegal and farmed, with his youngest daughter Rosemary, in Portsalon. He died in July 1951 and Aileen in 1958.

They are both buried in Rosnakill in the parish of Clondevaddock, Co Donegal.

Katherine Mellicent Frances (Kitty) BARTON born in Portsalon, Co. Donegal, on 24th December 1911, eldest daughter of Edward Barton & his wife Aileen née Johnston. On 14th September 1935 at the age of 23 she married Cecil Albert Connolly McCLENAGHAN in Rosnakill Church, Clondevaddock, Co Donegal.

Cecil was born in Killaghtee Rectory, Dunkineely, Donegal, Ireland on 6 April 1902. He was the third child of Henry St.George McClenaghan and Constance Mary Louisa (Queenie) Warren. His father was rector of Killaghtee parish from 1895 to 1919 and he then became Archdeacon of Raphoe. Together with his three brothers, Cecil attended The Royal School in Armagh, Co Armagh.
On leaving school Cecil joined Ralli Brothers, a trading company, and worked in England before he was posted to India in 1923 and joined the Ferozepore Agency. Later he was transferred to the Lyallpore Agency (now Faisalbad, Pakistan). In those days the main business of the company was in the export of grain, i.e. wheat, barley, chickpea flour, maize and oilseeds; and the import of cotton piece goods from Lancashire. Throughout his service both these trades gradually declined and the company's business came to be dominated by the export of cotton.

Cecil was in charge of the Lyallpore Agency during the Second World War and during the difficult times leading up to the partitioning of India and Pakistan in 1947. Cecil sent Katherine and the children back to Ireland for their safety at this time. In 1954 Cecil retired from Pakistan and worked in the Liverpool Office of Ralli Brothers and they moved to Southport, Lancashire, England.
Cecil retired in 1961 and died on 16th April 1981 in Southport, aged 79. Katherine moved to Harrison Cottage, Bilsborrow where she died on 1st March 2005, aged 93. They had three sons.
"Aunt Kitty" is well remembered by the younger generation for her enthusiasm and help when work first began on this Johnston Story.

Isabel Alice BARTON was born on 1st June 1914. She was educated at Ashleigh House School in Belfast and then she trained as a Physiotherapist in Birmingham. At the outbreak of the war, she joined the Red Cross and departed from Glasgow on a convoy to the Middle East. This was the beginning of her travels – she spent time in Egypt, Palestine,Italy, India, Palestine and Indonesia, finishing up in Singapore where she was Head Physiotherapist.

Isabel was in Indonesia when she met Michael MARRIOTT-DODINGTON whom she later married. Michael was born in 1907, the youngest son of Lt-Colonel Roger Marriott-Dodington. He was educated at Radley College and then attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry and was sent to Hong Kong. Michael was then commissioned into the Indian Army, and fought on the Khyber pass against the Afghans. He was then posted to Burma and fought under Field Marshal The Viscount Slim, against the Japanese. Michael was the youngest full Colonel of the Indian Army when he was promoted at the age of 32 in 1939. He was awarded the 1939-45 War Medal and the Star. At the end of the war, he also received an OBE.

Michael came back to England on secondment and the British War Office then reassigned him to Indonesia.

Isabel & Michael thought it was not a good idea to return to the UK after the war. They bought a map of the world and Isabel closed her eyes and pointed to … New Zealand ! They applied for assisted passage which was granted, and in 1947 off they went ! They arrived in Nelson at the north tip of South Island.

They thought about growing tobacco or having an orchard but eventually Michael became a grain & seed broker. They lived in Timaru, South Canterbury for 17 years and returned to Nelson when Michael retired.
Michael died in June 1994 and Isabel in December 2010. They had two daughters.

Mella Edna BARTON was born on 6th November 1915. She attended Ashleigh House School in Belfast with her sister Isabel.
The school was founded by Anne & Rosalind Shearman, daughters of the Rev Josiah Shearman, minister at St Matthew's Church, Belfast. Mella very much enjoyed her time at the school and stayed in touch with the two sisters, who were joint headmistresses, until they died.
Mella met Henry Anderson Clifford GILL at her sister Kitty's wedding in 1935. Cecil McClenaghan had brought Harry with him as best man. They were both on leave from India. Harry fell in love with Mella and would have married her on his next leave in 1939 - however war broke out so all the wedding arrangements had to be cancelled; Harry had to return to India at once and Mella followed a few months later and they married in Bombay on Christmas Eve.
Harry Gill was born in India in 1906, the eldest son of Colonel Clifford Gill who was a doctor in the Indian Army. After graduating from Cambridge, Harry returned to India in the Indian Civil Service where he remained until India became independent in 1947. Then he transferred to the Home Civil Service, latterly the Crown Estates Department, working in London and living in the village of Buckland in Surrey from 1947 until his death in 1980. He was also a keen botanist. Mella and Harry had three children.

Rosemary Aileen BARTON was born on 13th September 1919. She lived at home on the farm in Portsalon with her parents, Teddy & Aileen. She is well remembered by the family and with great affection.
When Teddy came home after the Great War, he was no longer able to do the physical work and so it was Rosemary who did the actual farming. Grandchildren on holiday at their grandparents' thatched house with wonderful views across the garden to Lough Swilly, have enchanting memories of Rosemary, watching her making rope, helping her collect eggs, learning to milk the cows and being taken to church in Rosnakill in the pony and trap...

Rosemary married Henry BORLAND in May 1951. They lived in Tamney, near Rosnakill. Sadly, both Rosemary and Henry died young, in 1972. They are buried in Rosnakill church graveyard.

J162563) Henry Stapleton JOHNSTON born in Stranorlar, Co Donegal. He qualified as a medical doctor in 1908. Her married Ruth Evelyn Atkinson PEEL, on 15th December 1909 in Christ Church, Leeson Park, Dublin. Ruth was born in Armagh on 4th June 1880. In 1914, Henry worked in Essex and then from 1924-55 in Wellington, Somerset. Henry died on 28th January 1955. Ruth died on 31st December 1973

They had two daughters :

J1625631) Mellicent Mary JOHNSTON was born on 21st June 1911 at West View, Bollington, Macclesfield, Cheshire. Mellicent qualified as a medical doctor. She died on 12th June 1988, at Little Oak, Waddicombe, Somerset

J1625632) Ruth Alice JOHNSTON was born on 8th April 1914 at Ivy House, South Ockendon, Essex. She married Kenneth Frank Hywel (Hywel) MURRELL, born 1908, on 17th September 1938 at the Parish Church in Wellington, Essex.

J162564) Victor Ernest JOHNSTON third son of Dr Henry Maturin Johnston & his wife Mellicent Stapleton, was born in Stranorlar, Co Donegal on 27th January 1887. Victor appears in the 1901 and 1911 Stranorlar censuses where his profession is noted as "Engine Fitter at Works". He married Mary Jones in 4th Quarter of 1938 in Stranorlar. She was the youngest daughter of William & Christianna Jones of Drumboe, Co Donegal.
Victor died in January 1963 and Mary in September 1981. They are both buried in Stranorlar graveyard, in the Jones family grave.

J162565) Albert Blennerhassett JOHNSTON born in Stranorlar, Co Donegal on 23rd October 1888. He joined the Navy in January 1906. Albert married Esther Luttrell BAILEY at Christ Church, Kenilworth, in the parish of Wynberg, the Cape, South Africa, on 14th February 1922. He retired from the Navy in 1938 as Paymaster Captain, having been Accountant Officer at the Anti-submarine School at Portland, Dorset.

In April 1939 he was just 50 when the RAF was preparing for war and recruiting retired Army and Navy officers to the Volunteer Reserve, but to fly desks rather than planes. Albert was commissioned as an honorary Flight Lieutenant in the General Duties branch where his managerial and accountancy skills might be needed. However, after the declaration of war, on 29 October he relinquished his commission “on cessation of duty”.

Esther died, aged 50, on 18th July 1951 and Albert on 22 July 1954. They are both buried in the Public Cemetery at Watery Lane, Newent, Gloucestershire, grave B57.

They had one daughter:

J1625651) Pamela JOHNSTON born on 10th January 1926 in Dalmeny, near Edinburgh, Scotland. The family lived in South Africa until she was 7 years old. When she was 5, her mother was received into the Catholic Church and Pamela was baptized at the same time.
Her mother often travelled on board the ship with her father. As a result, at the age of 7, Pamela went to boarding school with the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Weymouth, Dorset. She spent her primary school years with the Sisters, and then went to the Sacred Heart nuns in Kilgraston, Perthshire for her Secondary education, eventually becoming head girl of the school.
At the age of seventeen she went to Edinburgh University to study modern languages, but after a year decided not to continue. She was in touch with the Prioress of Edinburgh Carmel, and entered there in September 1945 just at the end of the war. She received the habit in March 1946 taking the name Sr. Clare of the Hearts of Jesus & Mary out of the love and respect she had for the Sisters who had been so good to her, and she made her profession in May 1947. Pamela died on 27th August 2016, aged 90.

J162566) Herbert Augustus JOHNSTON was born in Stranorlar, Co Donegal on 28th August 1891. He was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He obtained his Certificate of Proficiency in Radiotelegraphy in September 1913 and worked for Messrs. Siemans Brothers, fitting wireless installations in many parts of the world.

From this employment, he entered the New Army for a year as a private before joining the Royal Flying Corps and passed the Central Flying School Upavon Certificate "A". As Second Lieutenant, he flew operationally with the N°1 Squadron from January 1916 and was killed by enemy shell-fire a few weeks later, on 4th March 1916.

The commander of the squadron wrote to Herbert's father, Dr Henry M. Johnston, to tell him that Herbert and a fellow officer had had the day off due to bad weather when a shell fell ten yards away, killing him and wounding his companion. The commander added : "We are all extremely sorry about the whole thing, the more so because he was not only one of my best officers, but also a great favourite with all his brother officers."

Herbert is buried in the Cité Bonjean Military Cemetery in Armentières, in the north of France.

Henry Maturin Johnston married secondly Amy Cordelia CRAIG née SNOAD in December 1912 at St George's Church, Hanover Square, London.

Amy was born in Yoxall, Lichfield, Staffordshire in 1866. She married, firstly, James Craig at the beginning of 1887 and she was widowed in December the same year - her husband died, aged 32. In the 1901 and 1911 Census, Amy is living with her brother, Dr Philip Ephraim Snoad, in Aylestone Leicestershire. The 1911 Census also shows another brother, Dr Francis George Snoad and her elder sister Frances, also a widow.

Henry died on 9th July 1932, aged 82. Amy died in Warrenpoint, Co Down on 7th October 1940. They are both buried in Stranorlar graveyard, Co Donegal.

J16257) Augustus JOHNSTON born in Ramelton on 15th April 1852. He emigrated to Sydney, Australia around 1889 where he worked as a wool sorter. He remained a bachelor and died on 6th June 1911. He is buried in the Church of England cemetery, Rookwood, N.S.W.

J16258) James Stewart JOHNSTON born in Ramelton on 14th July 1853. According to Beamish family papers, James died "in his teens".

(from right to left) standing - Benjamin Charles, Benjamin Maturin, Ina, Lucy; sitting - Christina with baby Henry on her knee, Katherine, Emma Johnston (J16252), Alice

Benjamin Maturin Johnston & Christina (Stapelton)

Benjamin Charles with Fanny, Betty and Stephen in c. 1920

Stephen and Joyce on 13 March 1937

John and Betty Russell

Alice and Dick Sandes wedding at Umtali 1926

Lucy, Alice and Leslie Crosby

Dr Benjamin Johnston - the only surviving photo suffered a little from being carried around in the breast pocket of his son Arthur (J16259). Kindly supplied by Arthur's grandson, Barry Johnston.