Private Papers of Lieutenant Colonel R W F Johnston CMG CBE MC TD

Photostat copy of a ts memoir (107pp), written in 1983, covering his service and training as a Territorial Force private and later NCO in the 1/9th Battalion Royal Scots in Edinburgh (March 1910 - February 1915), with the Battalion (27th Division) on the Western Front (May - November 1915) including the fighting in Sanctuary Wood during the 2nd Battle of Ypres, and with the 1st Battalion Royal Scots (also 27th Division) in Macedonia (November 1915 - October 1916) including an attack on the villages of Bala and Zir in September 1916; with No 9 Officer Cadet Battalion in Gailes, Ayrshire (November 1916 - February 1917) and as a platoon and later company commander in the 16th Battalion Royal Scots (34th Division) on the Western Front (April 1917 - March 1918), including the latter stages of the Battle of Arras (April - May 1917), an attack at Hargicourt (August 1917), the fighting in the vicinity of Passchendaele during 3rd Ypres (October 1917) and the first day of the German spring offensive when he was wounded while in the line near Arras. The memoirs contain some very precise detail of trench routine and tactics, convincing accounts of all the major actions in which he participated and interesting comparisons of the merits and morale of Regular, Territorial and Kitchener Army units.

Cataloguer RWAS

Catalogue date 1983-12-23