Nelson & His World

New forum member Jim Steel has asked me to post details of Trafalgar veteran William Johnstone, buried in Ayrshire. However, the only Johnston on the Trafalgar Roll is an American. Can anyone comment on this mystery?

Many thanks and congratulations on your site. My main reason for contacting you is that I saw a discussion on the site forum re the name John Johnston(e). I'm a family historian and am presently transcribing Monumental Inscriptions onto database for our County Archives. One entry from a headstone in Cumnock, East Ayrshire reads: William Johnstone IMO father John born Sanquhar (Dumfries County) fought under Lord Nelson at Trafalgar 1805 - received a pension for this from the Admiralty in 1871. Died Cumnock 1st Sept 1880 aged 99yrs;
During the work I'm doing I try to fill in more details about any interesting issue. The only Johnston I see in the Trafalgar Roll is an American!
Hope the above info can assist your members on the site.

According to the Ayshford Complete Trafalgar Roll, there were 8 William Johnstons and 2 William Johnstones present at Trafalgar - but none of them were from Dumfries, indeed none were from Scotland.

Likewise, if he were alive in 1849 he would have been able to claim his Naval General Service medal for Trafalgar ... but no William Johnston(e) is shown as doing so.

Any pension he recieved would presumably have been a Greenwich out-pension, which was not specifically for Trafalgar. If he did receive a Greenwich pension, then he would have had to apply for it, with details of his service - it may be worth checking this avenue.

I started looking for a William Johnston, and then realised that we are being confused by the abbreviated memorial inscription. The Trafalgar veteran is John Johnston, and William is his son. A bit of Googling shows the full inscription to be: The search then becomes easy, as John Johnston is the subject of a two-part article in the Nelson Dispatch by Rab Wilson, the first part of which appeared in the last issue. The second part is yet to be published, so we will learn more then.

John Johnston is the author of two poems about the Battle of the Nile and the Battle of Trafalgar, published by his friend A B Todd in 1874 as 'Lord Nelson - A Poem' together with a biographical sketch (which will appear in the next Nelson Dispatch).

The following snippet about him is from 'Mid-Victorian poetry, 1860-1879: an annotated biobibliography' by Catherine W. Reilly:
According to A B Todd, John Johnston was born a gentleman, was well educated and a fine classical scholar, but somewhat of a wild youth so that he joined the Royal Navy as a common marine in 1802, unknown to his family. The family later hit hard times, and Todd rescued Johnston from poverty after he had given up school teaching by writing to the newspapers, raising a subscription for him, and applying to the Admiralty for a pension. He received a Greenwich Hospital pension of £27-7s in 1871.

Having said all that, the Ayshford Trafalgar Roll does not list John Johnston as a marine in the Colossus, or indeed in any other ship. There is a John Johnson, Carpenter's Crew in the Colossus, but born in Middlesex, and the wrong age. At Trafalgar there were 3 men named John Johnston, 2 named John Johnstone, and 23 named John Johnson. But none are a good match for this John Johnston. Of course he may have joined up under a false name.

What a fantastic coincidence that this question was asked just as the articles are being published in the Nelson Dispatch!

It will be very interesting to see if any pension records exist and give an indication of the "alternative name" he used when he enlisted.

I took a quick look on the NMM Maritime Memorials website - http://www.nmm.ac.uk/memorials/ - and I couldn't see any sign of the grave on there. Can somebody double check that for me please. If it definitely isn't there it would be neat if somebody could submit it. Maybe Jim Steel would be interested in doing that?

MB

The latest Nelson Dispatch includes the biographical sketch of John Johnston by A.B.Todd, published in 1874. According to this, John Johnston enlisted in the Royal Marines at Bolton, Lancashire, in October 1802 in his twenty second year. He was first put on board the Princess guardship, at Liverpool, and soon after he was sent to Plymouth, and there joined the 74-gun ship Terrible. He was next sent on board the Hibernia of 100 guns, and shortly before the escape of the French fleet from Toulon he was drafted on board the Colossus of 74 guns, on which he was at the Battle of Trafalgar, where he received a severe flesh wound on the thigh. He continued in the navy till the year 1814, when he obtained his discharge.

The Nelson Dispatch also includes his canto 2 of his poem 'Lord Nelson': 'Battle of Trafalgar'. Having now read it, I have to say that I don't believe the poem was written by someone who was in the Colossus at Trafalgar...

Any more information on John Johnson please as I am adding him to my "Burns Corridor" Icon List.
Please don't tell me he wasn't on The Colossus after all. : (

According to what I have read, he did not receive a pension until the last months of his life.

Great story. Hope there's more truth than seems to be hinted to here.