John Johnston

Who was John Johnston?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John "Johnny" Frederick Johnston GCVO MC was an officer in the British Army and then joined the Royal Household, serving as Assistant Comptroller and then Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain's Office. Sometimes known as "Stopwatch Johnny", he was one of the Queen's most popular courtiers. His duties included co-ordinating the weddings of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 and of The Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in 1986, and the funeral of The Duchess of Windsor at St George's Chapel, Windsor, also in 1986.

Johnston was born in Burma, where his father was a banker in Mandalay. Brought up as a Roman Catholic, he was educated at Ampleforth College, where he became friends with Basil Hume.

In 1941, he joined the 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards, then being converted from infantry into an armoured formation with Churchill tanks. He commanded a squadron and then a troop. His troop was part of a diversion force posted to mislead the Germans into expecting an invasion of the Pas de Calais, so he landed in Normandy six weeks after D-Day. His battalion advanced though Belgium and the Netherlands, entering German territory near Minden. He sustained head injuries from a Panzerfaust attack on 21 April 1945, and he was hospitalised in Brussels. After convalescing and some leave, he rejoined his unit after VE Day in Schleswig-Holstein. He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions on the advance to the Elbe, and remained in the Army after demobilisation. He wrote of his war-time experiences in his Memoirs of a Tank Troop Leader.