BORN HULL 1892. ENLISTED HULL. LIVED IN GOOLE. SON OF SAMUEL JOHNSTON (1854-1930) AND ANNIE CUTTS (1853-1913), OF 11, ALLIANCE AVENUE, HULL (1901 CENSUS) AND 53, CLIFTON GARDEN, GOOLE (1911 CENSUS). HE HAD THREE BROTHERS AND EIGHT SISTERS. A SINGLE MAN. HE WORKED AS A CIVIL SERVANT, LIKE HIS FATHER, WHO WAS A HM CUSTOMS OFFICE.
HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS, ON 03/10/1914. SERVED WITH THE 12TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. TRANSFERRED TO THE 7TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, ON 08/03/1917. KILLED IN ACTION, AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917, AGED 25. HE HAD SERVED IN THE ARMY FOR 2 YEARS AND 210 DAYS. COMMEMORATED ON THE ARRAS MEMORIAL, FRANCE.
HIS BROTHER, PIONEER, HAROLD JOHNSTON (1891-1917), 165741, ROYAL ENGINEERS, DIED AT SEA THE FOLLOWING DAY, ON 04/05/1917, AGED 26. (The ship was off Italy, hit by a torpedo & quickly sunk in less than an hour. A total of 414 men died).
HIS BROTHER ALEXANDER SERVED IN THE COLDSTREAM GUARDS. HIS BROTHER, ARCHIBALD JONSTON, SERVED IN THE ARMY CYCLIST CORPS AND RECEIVED THE SILVER WOUND BADGE.
The attack on Oppy Wood, part of the Battle of Arras, was a significant battle for the East Yorkshire Regiment and particularly for the city of Hull. All four Hull Pals battalions were involved on 3 May and all suffered heavy casualties, with 40% of those present killed or injured. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a local teacher and rugby player with Hull FC, won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in rushing a machine gun position to protect his platoon. His body was never found.
The village of Oppy in France had been in German hands since October 1914 and was part of a formidable defensive system including trenches, dug-outs and thick barbed wire defences. During the Battle of Arras, which began in April 1917, the British tried to take Oppy. The first attack was a failure. A second attack was partially successful. The third attack on 3 May, known officially as the Third Battle of the Scarpe, was again unsuccessful with significant loss of life. The troops were ordered to attack at 3.45am, rather than at dawn, and the defending Germans could easily see the line of British soldiers clearly lit by the full moon. The British continued to attack Oppy and were finally successful the following year. The City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
