I revisited Johnson's biography this morning and, although it was earlier posted on another forum, it seems worth repeating it to a new audience.
ALAN HALIDAY JOHNSON
Alan Haliday Johnson was born in India in about 1872. He was the son of Samuel and Laura Johnson, who had married in Madras in 1869. Samuel Johnson was the Managing Director of Muir Mills in Cawnpore (Kanpur), an important textile mill that until recently was still in production.
Alan Johnson settled in Natal, probably in the early 1890’s. In 1896, he joined the Natal Troop Volunteer Corps and served as a Trooper in the Rhodesian Rebellion of that year. He evidently had some previous military experience, since this was required of the Natal volunteers, who served with distinction in the rebellion. Johnson was awarded the British South Africa Company Medal (Rhodesia 1896), which he applied for in April 1900, when he was again in uniform. He never had the opportunity of wearing either this medal or his posthumously issued QSA, both of which have been kept in pristine condition.
At the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in October 1899, Johnson had a wife, Elizabeth (born Sinclair), and a child, and owned a business in Durban. He was also a part-time soldier in the Natal Mounted Rifles (NMR) (No. 251). All the Natal volunteer regiments were mobilized and Johnson served with this regiment at the Battle of Elandslaagte and in the Defence of Ladysmith.
After the Siege of Ladysmith was relieved, Johnson joined the Imperial Light Horse (ILH) (No. 774), a newly-raised regiment that had quickly developed an illustrious record both at Elandslaagte and in Ladysmith. By then it no doubt offered a keen soldier good prospects for further action. If this was Johnson’s motivation for joining, he was not disappointed since he was soon with the ILH column that added to the regiment’s fame by spearheading the relief of the Siege of Mafeking.
After Mafeking was relieved, British mounted troops (ILH and Scottish Yeomanry) under Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Hunter moved from Mafeking through Lichtenberg and Ventersdorp to reach Potchefstroom on 10/6/1900. Before the mounted troops were replaced by infantry on 18/6/1900, General Hunter placed Lieutenant Rupert Wickham (ILH) in charge of the newly-created Potchefstroom District Police. In a fateful decision for Johnson, Wickham selected him and several other ILH men for transfer to the police. Johnson was given the rank of Sergeant and posted to Ventersdorp.
Thanks to the persistence of Johnson’s young widow in extracting from the authorities moneys that were owing to her, more is known of Alan Johnson’s last days than would otherwise have been the case. There are files in both the Natal and Transvaal Repositories of the South African National Archives that deal with Elizabeth’s claims and the circumstances of her husband’s death.
Against expectations, the Boers launched the second (guerilla) phase of the war and the British in the Western Transvaal were soon on the defensive. They retired from Potchefstroom on 9/8/1900 and the Boers re-entered the town on 10/8/1900. There are conflicting reports of what happened to Johnson at that time and in the days leading up to his death.
In a letter dated 8/2/1901 claiming payment for unpaid accommodation costs due from Johnson, Henry Trevor, owner of the Crown Hotel in Potchefstroom, wrote as follows:
“Serg. A H Johnson was in the Ventersdorp police taken prisoner by the Boers and escaped to Potchefstroom. When Lord Methuen on Aug 9th evacuated Potchefstroom, the Boers came in on the 10th. Johnson came to the Hotel during the night of Aug. 11 & my wife took him in and kept him hidden till the 20th. (I was at the time a prisoner in the hands of the Boers). On the night of the 20th Jonson [sic] left the Hotel to try and get through the Boer lines to Mafeking and I hear was captured somewhere near Lichtenberg …”
In another letter dated 3/5/1901, an officer in the Potchefstroom District Commissioner’s Office wrote:
“On August 9th Sergt Johnson was ordered to leave Potchefstroom with the Troops on evacuation. I myself personally told him the hour of departure and ordered him to leave with the Garrison. The next day it was found that he had absented himself without leave and had remained in Potchefstroom contrary to orders. As he did not rejoin within 21 days he was struck off the strength as a deserter, and ceased to draw pay. Pay from 10.8.00 to 20.8.00 is therefore not due to his estate.”
The charge of desertion was subsequently not sustained and from the official viewpoint the only seemingly unresolved matter was whether or not Johnson had been struck off the ILH roll when he was posted to the Potchefstroom District Police. This was a largely academic difference of opinion, perhaps to counter Elizabeth Johnson’s claim for moneys owing to her late husband. In the final analysis, Johnson was memorialized by the ILH, his widow was compensated, while the ephemeral Potchefstroom District Police was supplanted by the newly-created South African Constabulary after the British re-established control of the Western Transvaal.
The details of what transpired after Johnson left Potchefstroom on the night of 20/8/1900 are not known. The official conclusion came from Colonel A H M Edwards, who had been the District Commissioner of Potchefstroom at the time. In a memorandum dated 11/11/1902, Edwards wrote that Johnson had tried to get to Mafeking through Ventersdorp and that “En route he was captured and shot.” He has no known grave.
This account suggests that Johnson was summarily executed by the Boers, which is perhaps unlikely since at this stage in the War prisoners were still being treated with respect by both sides. He may instead have either been killed in an exchange of gunfire, or shot while trying to escape through Boer lines. Perhaps a Boer record of the incident will one day emerge and give their version of what transpired.
The curious circumstances of Johnson demise led to other mistakes in official records. He is recorded on the ILH QSA roll as having been “Discharged on 18/11/1900”, while the South African Field Force casualty roll records his date of death as 1/8/1900.
Johnson’s QSA was issued off the ILH roll and the clasps awarded reflect his service with that regiment (i.e. Relief of Mafeking, Transvaal, Natal). The Natal clasp is loose on the ribbon indicating that it was a late issue representing the short time Johnson spent in Natal with the ILH after Ladysmith was relieved. In fact, it should not have been issued at all. Instead, Johnson should have been credited for his service with the NMR, for which he was entitled to the Elandslaagte and Defence of Ladysmith clasps. Representative examples of these two clasps have been placed loose on the ribbon of the medal. Thus, Johnson’s QSA should carry the following clasps:
Relief of Mafeking, Elandslaagte, Defence of Ladysmith, Transvaal.
Johnson’s widow was no doubt unaware of the errors with the clasps and did not have them corrected, something that her husband may well have done had he lived to receive his medal.
POSTSCRIPT
Elizabeth Johnson’s 1961 death notice led to some revelations about her later life.
The notice made no mention of the child fathered by Alan Johnson, which indicates that he or she must have pre-deceased Elizabeth. It further transpired that Elizabeth was one of three daughters of a Yorkshire-born builder, who lived in Durban and who was not married to the mother of the children. It was perhaps Johnson’s choice of an ‘unsuitable’ wife that alienated his evidently prominent and wealthy father in India.
Surprisingly, Elizabeth waited until at least 1939 before remarrying. Her second husband was the grandly-named Maurice St John De Lisle. This man was otherwise notable for the fact that he outlived at least four wives, namely, Lilian (died in1933), Adela (1939), Elizabeth (1961) and Elsie (1973), before he himself succumbed in 1978.
The circumstances of Alan Johnson’s death in 1900 will probably never be revealed and the same may well apply in the case of Elizabeth’s death 61 years later. Elizabeth’s long life in the intervening years will also remain a mystery.
Brett Hendey 16/5/2012
