Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Boer War C.M.G. group of five awarded to Colonel P. H. Johnston, Royal Army Medical Corps

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with swivel ring and straight bar suspension, with integral silver-gilt riband buckle, slight enamel damage to reverse central medallion; Afghanistan 1878-80, no clasp (Surg. P. H. Johnston. 85th Foot) latter part of surname officially corrected; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hazara 1888 (Surgn. P. H. Johnston. M.S.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith (Lt. Colonel P. H. Johnston. C.M.G., R.A.M.C.) engraved naming; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (Lt. Col. P. H. Johnston. M.D., C.M.G., R.A.M.C.) engraved naming, some light contact marks, generally very fine and better (5) £1,400-£1,800

Provenance: Colonel Riddick Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2006.

Percy Herbert Johnston was born in Cawnpore on 13 July 1851, the son of Surgeon-Major J. W. Johnston, M.D., 85th Regiment. Educated at Queen’s College, Cork, he entered the Army as a Surgeon on 4 February 1877 and served in the Afghan War during 1879-80, in the Zaimusht Expedition and assault and capture of Zawa. Service in the Hazara Expedition of 1888 was followed in February 1889 by promotion to Surgeon-Major. Advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in February 1897, he then saw active service in the Boer War, and was granted the local rank of Colonel whilst in charge of a General Hospital in Pietermaritzburg. For his services he was three times Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 2 December 1899, 30 March 1900, 23 June 1902) and was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (London Gazette 29 November 1900). Retiring from the Service in 1906, he was later County Director of the Voluntary Aid Organisation, Flintshire and Denbighshire, 1911-14; served in the Flintshire Territorial Association, 1913-14; and was Senior Medical Officer of the Mersey Defences, 1914-19, with the rank of Brevet Colonel. Late in life, in 1926, he was awarded an honorary D.Sc. by the National University of Ireland. He died on 13 August 1932.

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