Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

11/02/1916

Date of Discharge

12/01/1920

Place of Enlistment

Perth, Western Australia

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

12/10/1885

Place of Birth

Perth, Western Australia

Address (at enlistment)

Perth, Western Australia (previously Acton ACT)

Occupation

Surveyor

Next of Kin

Maria Johnston (mother), Mount Street, Perth, Western Australia. His father was deceased.

Service Number

51999

Final Rank

Sergeant

Final Unit

Engineering Detail AIF

Johnston arrived in Canberra in 1913 to work as a surveyor. He surveyed the south eastern portion of the ACT border and the Cotter valley but was working in the Mulligans Flat area when war broke out. Initially he was not allowed to enlist until December 1916; in the meantime he was transferred to work in Western Australia on the site of a naval base and the transcontinental railway. He arrived in England in July 1918 and was taken on strength with the Engineers Detail. He married in Chelsea, London in July 1919 before returning to Australia in December and being discharged in January 1920. Johnston returned to Canberra in 1922-24 to work (he surveyed the site for Telopea Park School and old Parliament House) and went on to become Commonwealth Surveyor General (1944-49), Chief Property Officer and Director of National Mapping as well as serving on the ACT Advisory Council (1945-49). He died on 24 December 1963 at his home in Newport Beach, Sydney. His son Marshall served in World War 2.

Description - height 5 feet 7½ inches, weight 115 pounds, chest 31-33 inches, fresh complexion, brown eyes, dark brown hair, Church of England.

Terry Birtles, 'Charles Robert Scrivener: The Surveyor who Sited Australia's National Capital Twice', 2013
F. M. Johnston, 'Knights and Theodolites: A Saga of Surveyors', 1962
John D. Lines, 'Australia on Paper: The story of Australian Mapping', 1992
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
The Canberra Times - 28 December 1963
Image courtesy of Althea De Salis (nee Mouat)