2nd Lieut William Holden Johnston

• Age: 31
• From: Belfast
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 30th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Guillemont Rd Cem
  Panel Ref: XIV.A.9

William Holden Johnston (known in the family as Willie) was born in the September quarter of 1885, in Belfast, Northern Ireland the son of John Gibson Johnston and his wife Esther (nee Holden) of “Brooklands” Annadale, Belfast. His father was born in County Down and his mother in Manchester. They married in Chorlton, Manchester in 1879 and had six children. Willie had older siblings; Edith Sarah, Netta Elizabeth, and Henry S. (Harry) and younger siblings John and Katherine Mary, all born in Belfast. The family was Episcopalian.

At the time of the 1901 census they are living at 2 Annadale Avenue, Ormeau, Belfast.  They have six children;  His brother Harry, 16, is an accountant’s clerk, Willie, 15, is at school. They have two servants and a visitor, Joseph B Childe, an accountant from Bradford. 

In 1911 they are at No.12 Annadale Avenue, with four children at home and three servants.  His father, 61, and brother Henry, 26, are chartered accountants, his mother is 60.  William is 25, an accountant’s articled clerk, Netta, 27, and Kathleen, 19, have no occupation.  Also in the household is granddaughter Esther A. Stevenson, 11 months old, the daughter of his sister Edith.

He was educated at Coleraine Academical Institute and before the war he was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force and received military training with this unofficial unit.

Prior to enlisting, Willie was in partnership with his father and brother Harry in the family firm of Messrs. J. G. Johnston & Sons, chartered accountants, Donegall Square South.

Only one month after the outbreak of war, he crossed to England and joined the ranks of the Royal Fusiliers as Private. He was commissioned on 29th March 1915 into the 15th Battalion The King’s Liverpool Regiment and during service in the Liverpool area, he married Dorothy Howroyd the daughter of Mr and Mrs W. T. Howroyd, of Huyton, Liverpool, Lancashire.

His younger brother, John, died in November 1915 in a sanatorium in Banchory, Scotland. His body was brought home to Belfast and Willie attended the funeral. He laid a wreath from "Willie and Dorothy". John was buried in Knockbreda.

He was later transferred to the 17th Battalion and reported for duty on 17th February 1916, when the Battalion was in billets at Bray, on the Somme Sector. He was admitted to No. 97 Field Ambulance on 4th April 1916, with bronchitis and transferred to No. 21 Casualty Clearing Station, at Corbie, on the 18th. He was discharged fit for duty ten days later. He then attended the machine gun school at Camiers, from 22nd May until 11th June and took part in the early fighting of the Somme offensive.

He was killed during the Liverpool Pals blackest day the Battle of Guillemont on the 30^th July 1916, aged 31. 

17th Battalion Diary 30th July 1916

The Battalion was in support to 19 & 20 Battalions K.L.R. 2 Coys. behind 19th & 2 Coys. behind 20th. Very thick mist. The attack was pushed home to the objective in places but in the main was held up by machine gun fire from hidden machine guns.

Fighting continued all day swaying backwards and forwards until by 6pm about 300 yards in depth had been gained & consolidated all along our front.

Casualties in the 17th Battalion were 15 Officers and 281 Other Ranks

Further details are reported in more detailed by Everard Wyrall in his book The History of the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) 1914-1919 Volume II 1916-1917

The 17th King’s had advanced (two companies each behind the 19th and 20th Battalions) in small columns. They too suffered heavily from machine-gun fire and were quickly absorbed into the waves that preceded them. They also shared the gains and losses of that terrible day.

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55th Division during the early hours of the 31st July.

The events of 30th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone.       

Willie was initially reported as Missing and later as wounded and Missing. His family placed a notice in the press requesting information:

Second Lieutenant Johnston Missing

The name of a well known young Belfast man, Second Lieutenant W H Johnston, the King's Liverpool Regiment, previously reported wounded, appears in yesterday's list of casualties as officially reported as wounded and missing. Second Lieutenant Johnston is the second son of Mr J G Johnston C A 16 Donegal Square South and Brooklands, Annadale, Belfast. He enlisted in the Old Public Schoolboys Brigade in September 1914, and in March, 1915, was granted a commission, being posted to the King's Liverpool Regiment. In February of this year he was sent to France and took part in many engagements, and came safely through the big advance of July 1st. He served with his Regiment up to 30th July on which date he was reported wounded. Although the most exhaustive enquiries have since been made, no trace of him can be found, nor has any news been received from himself. If any returned officer or man knows anything regarding his whereabouts and will communicate with his relatives at Brooklands they will be very grateful. Before he entered the Army Second Lieutenant Johnston was in partnership with his father, Mr. J. G.Johnston and his brother, Mr. H. S. Johnston in the firm of Messrs J G Johnston &Sons, chartered accountants, Donegall Square South.

His wife appealed for information in the Liverpool Echo on 22nd August:

“Second-Lieut. W. H. Johnston, King’s (Liverpool Regiment), reported wounded July 30. - Any information about him will be gratefully received by Mrs. W. H. Johnston, Fairholme, Huyton, Liverpool.”

In addition to newspaper notices, his family appealed to the International Red Cross in Geneva, and through the Swiss Consulate in Liverpool, receiving replies on 11th and 25th September 1916 that they held no information on Willie.

In the Liverpool Echo, on 30th July 1917 under the heading Lost At The Battle of Guillemont, his family paid tribute to William:

“Reported wounded and missing on July 30, 1916, now officially reported killed. William Holden Johnston, second-lieutenant K.L.R., husband of Dorothy Johnston, Fairholme, Huyton, and second son of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Johnston, Brooklands, Annadale, Belfast.”

The Dublin Daily Express on Friday 14 September 1917 reported that an application to presume death had been made in the case of William: 

BELFAST OFFICER REPORTED MISSING  

Application to Presume Death  

Yesterday, in the King’s Bench (Probate) Division, before the Lord Chief Justice, Mr. Tobias (instructed by Messrs. Wheller and M’Cutcheon) applied on behalf of Henry S. Johnston, chartered accountant, of 16 Donegal square, South Belfast, for order presuming the death his brother Wm. Holden Johnston, temporary second lieutenant in the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, who has been missing since 30th July, 1916. He was a partner in the firm of Messrs J. G. Johnston and Sons, chartered accountants, Belfast, and at the outbreak of the war a commission in the regiment mentioned. He went on active service, was reported as wounded on 30th July, 1916, and had since been missing. He was seen in a shell hole, and was about being carried to a dressing post, but no trace of him could since found, though numerous inquiries had been made. The assets amounted £800, the property being left to his widow. The Lord Chief Justice made the order.    

It was only after the Armistice that definite news of his death was received from a Sergeant of the 8th (Irish) Battalion The King’s Liverpool Regiment who had recently been released form a Prisoner of War Camp. He reported that he had found Johnston’s body on 02nd August 1916 and had retained photographs taken from the body, which conclusively proved its identity. Some time after this his actual corpse was recovered and he was re buried in Guillemot Road Cemetery, not far from where he was killed.

Willie was buried close to where he fell and after the war, when graves were concentrated, his body was removed and reinterred in Guillemont Road Cemetery where he now rests. 

Guillemont was an important point in the German defences at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. It was taken by the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers on 30 July but the battalion was obliged to fall back, and it was again entered for a short time by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division on 8 August. On 18 August, the village was reached by the 2nd Division, and on 3 September (in the Battle of Guillemont) it was captured and cleared by the 20th (Light) and part of the 16th (Irish) Divisions. It was lost in March 1918 during the German advance, but retaken on 29 August by the 18th and 38th (Welsh) Divisions.

The cemetery was begun by fighting units (mainly of the Guards Division) and field ambulances after the Battle of Guillemont, and was closed in March 1917, when it contained 121 burials. It was greatly increased after the Armistice when graves (almost all of July-September 1916) were brought in from the battlefields immediately surrounding the village. 

Guillemont Road Cemetery now contains 2,263 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,523 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. 

His family placed the following notice in the press on the second anniversary of his death in 1918:

"Reported wounded and missing, July 30, 1916, now officially reported killed, William Holden Johnston, Second-Lieutenant K.L.R., husband of Dorothy Johnson, Fairholme, Huyton, and second son of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Johnston, Brooklands, Annadale, Belfast."

He left a will; probate, showing his address as 16 Donegall Square, South Belfast, was granted to the primary beneficiary/executor Henry S. Johnston, chartered accountant, effects £713-11s-11d (£632-14s-9d in England).

His sister Netta died in March 1917.  His mother died in 1924 and his father in 1930, aged 80.

Willie is commemorated in St. Jude’s Church, Ballynafeigh, Belfast, and on Ireland’s National Memorial as 15th K.L.R.

The following passages were taken from the Liverpool Scroll of Fame 

Notwithstanding the criticism that may be passed on the Ulster militant movement, it certainly gave many thousands of men the rudiments of military training, and this they readily placed at the service of the Empire. Linking up with their Nationalist fellows, and forgetting their quarrels, they illustrated the unifying influence of a common danger.

Second-Lieutenant William Holden Johnston was one who had profited from his work as an Ulster Volunteer, and within a month of the outbreak of war he had crossed from Ireland and enlisted in the ranks of the Old Public Schoolboys' Brigade.

He was a native of Belfast, where his parents still reside, and in 1915 he was married to a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.T. Howroyd, of Huyton, Liverpool. Educated at Coleraine Academical Institution, which sent out so many fine young men to fight for the nation's cause, he served his articles with his Father as a Chartered Accountant, and in due course became a partner in his firm in Belfast. So high in the Irish list had he passed in his examinations that he undoubtedly had remarkable professional prospects, and he also enjoyed the intimacy of a wide circle of friends. He was a keen motorist and accomplished golfer. 

Early in 1915 he was given a commission in the 15th King's (Liverpool Regiment). With the 17th "Pals" Battalion he went to France in 1916, and came safely through the early stages of the Somme Offensive that summer, only to be reported wounded and missing on the 30th July. This was in the memorable attack at Guillemont. The War Office believed that he had been killed, and this was found all too true after the armistice, when a sergeant of the Liverpool Irish, who had been repatriated as a prisoner of war, notified that he found the body of Sec-Lieutenant Johnstone on the 02nd of August. This sad news was conclusively proved by photographs taken from the dead officer.   
 

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