A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces

Pair: Private H. N. Johnston, 3rd (Toronto Regiment) Battalion, Canadian Infantry, who was wounded and captured at Ypres on 23 April 1915

British War and Victory Medals (18514 Pte. H. N. Johnston, 1-Can. Inf.), very fine (2) £60-80

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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Hugh Norman Johnston was born on 14 March 1887. A Carpenter by occupation, he enlisted in the 9th Battalion at Grand Prairie, Alberta, in September 1914 and, as part of the 1st Canadian Contingent, he arrived in England a week or two later. Embarked for France in February 1915, he served with the 3rd (Toronto) Battalion and was wounded at Ypres on 23 April 1915, suffering a gunshot to the left chest, which perforated the lung, fracturing a rib and exited from his back. Captured soon after, he was treated in a German hospital until June 1915, and was then interned as a prisoner-of-war at Roeselaire and Stendal camps, until repatriated to England at the end of the War. Discharged in April 1919, Johnston died in August 1942; sold with two enamelled lapel badges - ‘G.W.V.’ and ‘Service at the Front’ - together with copied service papers.