Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An original Great War pilot’s flying log book (early white cover type) appertaining to 2nd Lieutenant H. A. Johnston, Royal Flying Corps, who flew operationally with No. 1 Squadron from January 1916 until being killed by enemy shell-fire a few weeks later, covering the period 11 August 1915 (‘First flight [at Brooklands]. Capt. Blake’) to 2 March 1916 (‘Wytschaete. G.A.A. Crash on landing’), his operational record with No. 1 Squadron comprising about 20 patrols, mainly over the Ypres sector, and including the occasional brush with the enemy (e.g. 18 February 1916: ‘Lost way chasing Huns, lost engine coming down and crashed machine’); together with Central Flying School, Upavon Certificate ‘A’ (No. 891), inscribed to ‘2nd Lt. H. A. Johnston, Royal Flying Corps (S.R.)’, and dated 18 January 1916; and his pre-war Certificate of Proficiency in Radiotelegraphy, as issued by the Postmaster General, this inscribed to ‘Herbert Augustus Johnston’ and dated 17 September 1913 [‘He was with Messrs. Siemans Brothers and had fitted wireless installations in many parts of the world’], the first with partially detached spine/cover, otherwise generally in good condition, scarce £250-300

Herbert Augustus Johnston, who was born in Stranorlar, Co. Dublin in August 1891 and was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Dublin, was killed by enemy shell-fire on 4 March 1916. According to Captain G. L. Campbell’s wartime compilation of R.F.C. (Military Wing) casualties, he ‘was on leave for the day with a brother officer when a shell fell 10 yards away, killing him and wounding his companion’, a fate confirmed by Robson’s Airmen Died in the Great War 1914-1918, which adds that he was actually ‘visiting the front lines while on leave’. Johnston was interred in the Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres.