George Johnston was born on July 25, 1853, in Tazewell, Virginia, United States. His father, John Warfield Johnston, United States senator from Virginia, was a nephew of General Joseph E. Johnston; his mother, Nicketti Buchanan Floyd, was the daughter of Dr. John Floyd, a prominent physician and a governor of Virginia, and a sister of John Buchanan Floyd, secretary of war under President Buchanan.
Johnston's childhood was passed in the mountain country of southwestern Virginia, where he attended Abingdon Academy. Later he attended St. Vincent's Academy at Wheeling, West Virginia, and entered the University of Virginia, where, following academic studies, he took one year of the medical course. In 1875 he went to the University of the City of New York from which he received his medical degree in 1876.
Returning to Virginia, Johnston associated himself with Dr. E. M. Campbell of Abingdon for the practice of his profession. After two years he moved to Richmond, which was his home for the remainder of his life. He early associated himself with the Medical College of Virginia, filling minor teaching positions until 1884, when he was appointed professor of anatomy. In 1893 he was made professor of didactic and clinical surgery, holding this position under various titles until 1914, when he resigned to become a member of the board of visitors of the college.
Johnston had an instinct for surgical diagnosis together with unusual operative skill and resourcefulness. These, united with an attractive personality and untiring energy, made him the outstanding surgeon of his section.
Besides numerous journal articles relating to his specialty, Johnston contributed to American Practice of Surgery (1906 - 1911), edited by J. D. Bryant and A. H. Buck. He found Richmond greatly lacking in hospital accommodations and set himself to remedying the condition. He established the Old Dominion Hospital as an adjunct to the medical school and organized and built the Memorial Hospital, to which was later added a large annex for Negro patients. With Dr. Murat Willis he built the Johnston-Willis Sanitorium for their private surgical practice and, as outgrowths of this hospital, founded the Abingdon Hospital at Abingdon, Virginia, and the Park View Hospital at Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Johnston also organized the hospital department for the City Home of Richmond.
For years Johnston was one of the most active members of the state board of health. In 1911 he had an attack of angina pectoris, which recurred frequently until it carried him off suddenly in his home at Richmond in 1916.
Johnston was at various times president of the American Surgical Association, of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association, of the Medical Society of Virginia, and of the Richmond Academy of Medicine and Surgery. He was also a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the International Surgical Society, and of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Johnston was a tall, handsome man with a courtly manner and a gracious address which gave him leadership in any company in which he found himself. A brilliant conversationalist and raconteur, he was prevented from being a forceful public speaker by a shrill high-pitched voice.
Johnston was twice married: in 1881 to Mary McClung, who died the following year, and in 1892 to Helen Coles Rutherford of Rock Castle, Virginia.
