Fred Johns

Who was Fred Johns?

Frederick Johns was an Australian journalist and biographer.

Johns was born in Houghton, Michigan, United States, son of Cornishman Ezekial Johns of Cornwall, UK. Fred Johns was educated in Cornwall. He emigrated to Australia in 1884 and obtained a position on the South Australian Register, and rose to be a sub-editor. In 1906 he published his Johns's Notable Australians, a volume of biographies of Australians then living. A later edition appeared in 1908; from 1912–1914 it appeared as Fred Johns's Annual. In 1922 it was revived as Who's Who in the Commonwealth of Australia, and then in 1927 as Who's Who in Australia.

In 1914 Johns was appointed a member of the State Hansard staff, of which he subsequently became the leader. In 1920 Johns published a small collection of patriotic verses, In Remembrance, which was followed two years later by A Journalist's Jottings, a collection of essays dealing mostly with well-known Australians. Johns also edited the South Australian Freemason 1920–25.

Johns died at Adelaide aged 64. He was survived by a daughter. Under his will the sum of £1500 was left to the University of Adelaide to found "The Fred Johns Scholarship for Biography".