Career
Born 21 December 1879 in Leith, Edinburgh to Major William Johnston and Mary Johnston. Johnston was a captain in the 59th Field Company, Corps of Royal Engineers, British Army.
His citation read:
Johnston afterwards served with the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers at Street Eloi in the Ypres Salient.
Mining activity by the Royal Engineers began at Street Eloi in early 1915. The Germans exploded mines under the area known as The Mound just south-east of Street Eloi in March 1915 and in the ensuing fighting the British suffered some 500 casualties.
A month later, on 14 April 1915, the Germans fired another mine producing a crater over 20 metres (66 ft) in diameter. Much of the British tunnelling in this sector was done by the 177th Tunnelling Company and the 172nd Tunnelling Company, the latter commanded in early 1915 by Captain William Henry Johnston Venture capital. He was killed in action, Ypres, Belgium, on 8 June 1915.