The Afghanistan Medal awarded to Captain E. A. Johnson, Royal Artillery and British Colonial Service, who was affectionately known as ‘Johnson Pasha’ by the Bedouin tribesmen of Egypt, was twice decorated by the Khedive of Egypt, and was ‘mentioned’ in the aftermath of the Battle of Maiwand

A talented linguist and passionate amateur geologist credited with the discovery of masrium, he prospected for gold in the Egyptian desert on his days off and is widely viewed as the man who ‘rediscovered the ancient Egyptian gold mines’

Afghanistan 1878-80, no clasp (Capt: E. A. Johnson. R.A.) mounted as worn on original riband with contemporary top wearing pin, good very fine £500-£700

Turkish Order of the Osmanieh, 2nd Class, London Gazette 14 August 1908:
‘In recognition of valuable services.’

Turkish Order of the Medjidieh, 2nd Class, London Gazette 8 November 1892:
‘Granted unto the under mentioned English Officers of the Egyptian Police… in recognition of their services whilst actually and entirely employed beyond Her Majesty’s Dominions in the service of His Highness [the Khedive of Egypt].’

M.I.D. London Gazette 25 January 1881:
‘To Captain E. A. Johnson, R.A., Commissary of Ordnance Quetta, my cordial thanks are due for the prompt manner in which he prepared two 25-pounders to accompany the advance force and organised its park.'

Edward Armstrong Johnson was born in Dublin on 15 August 1846, the son of The Venerable J. Evans Johnson, Archdeacon of Ferns, and elder brother of Major-General Frederick Francis Johnson, C.B., 69th Regiment of Foot. Educated at Cheltenham College and the R.M.A. Woolwich, Johnson was appointed to a commission in the Royal Artillery on 8 January 1868 and was sent to India where he served as Commissary of Ordnance. Raised Captain 1 July 1879, Johnson was transferred north from Mhow and fought during the Second Anglo-Afghan Campaign of 1878-80 with General Phayre’s Division, which was charged with maintaining the lines of communication between Quetta and Kandahar, the latter besieged by Ayub Khan, the former Emir of Afghanistan and newly heralded victor of Maiwand. He was subsequently Mentioned in Despatches by Colonel G. Chesney, Secretary to the Government of India.

Taking his retirement from the Royal Artillery with gratuity on 19 August 1884, Johnson joined the Colonial Service and soon began to forge a successful and twice-decorated career attached to the Egyptian Police. He also developed a deep passion for mineral exploration - in particular, the search for gold deposits beneath the sands of Egypt, some 40 years before Howard Carter opened the eyes of the world to the riches of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, a reminder of the vast scale of local mining which took place millennia before.

An article published in The Daily Telegraph on 7 March 1903 gives a good account of this time:

‘The Week’s Finance: Egyptian Mines
In the midst of the prevailing dullness in the stock markets there has been some little activity in the new group of Egyptian undertakings… The present interest which is being taken by speculators in the shares of various companies mining for gold in Egypt is probably due to a versatile Pasha who has been in the Employ of the Egyptian Government for about twenty years. Johnson Pasha was in the Engineers (sic), and was one of the earliest Englishmen (sic) to leave the Service and go to Egypt. He quickly became an exceptional Arabic scholar, and he also took great interest in the inscriptions on the ancient monuments. His duties in the Egyptian Government brought him into close contact with all the Arab tribes in the Desert, and, learning from them of the existence of numberless holes in the ground, he used to spend most of his holidays wandering about the Desert visiting these holes. As General (sic) Johnson had a very considerable knowledge of geology, he soon came to the conclusion that the holes to which the Arabs led him were the remains of ancient gold mines. He accordingly offered small rewards to all the Arabs who would bring him any information as to their position. It need hardly be said that the Cairene officials looked upon Johnson Pasha as slightly mad…

The Pasha, however, kept on hammering away, and Egyptologists began to search for records of gold mining, which were eventually found to exist, and showed that in ancient times there must have been an enormous output of gold in Egypt.’

Travelling to England to publicise his cause, Johnson attempted to garner the support of the major financial houses but was repeatedly viewed as an enthusiast. In 1898, a chance meeting with an Australian prospector named Knox Brown resulted in concessions being offered to the Victoria Investment Corporation; fuelled by £35,000 in working capital, initial results looked promising. The Daily Telegraph of 7 March 1903, notes:

‘Work was started on the Red Sea at a place called Um Rus, and to-day, the main shaft, 10ft by 5ft, is down 300ft, and a shoot of gold has been discovered 600ft long, 2ft 6in. wide, going from 1oz to 10oz.'

Accordingly, further success was met at the Um Geraiart Mine belonging to the Nile Valley Company:

‘Exceedingly rich ore has been met with, and upwards of £11,000 worth of gold has already been won from the mine.'

Leaving the Colonial Service in 1908, Johnson and his wife returned home to Ireland and purchased a small estate at Enniscorthy, Ballinapierce, County Wexford. Here they enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence until the summer of 1916, when Sinn Fein rebels broke into their home and stole a double-barrelled shotgun. Using Johnson's newly procured Model T Ford as a 'getaway' car, they didn't get far; the subsequent crash vexed Johnson for months afterwards, heightened by conflict with his insurance company who were reluctant to pay out £85 4s. on account of a civil disturbance clause; he later won the case, although the gun was never recovered.

Unperturbed by local unrest, Johnson and his friends spent over £1000 on exploration and prospecting during the War years, focussing heavily upon the Barrystown lead mines. He went on to devote his final years, finances and personal labour to demonstrating the mineral wealth of County Wexford, including gold discoveries along the Little Garr River and near Enniscorthy. Ever the optimist, further attempts to extract valuable metals from the surrounding lodes were only held back by the economic and social climate of the time and Johnson's declining health; he died at home in 1932.