Lacey Robert Johnson

Who was Lacey Robert Johnson?

Colonel Lacey Robert Johnson was a Canadian Pacific Railway pioneer.

Lacey Johnson was the son of James Lacey Johnson, draper, of Market Place, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. From Abingdon School he entered the Great Western Railway works at Swindon, then was chief engineer of paper mills and worked at Woolwich Royal Arsenal.

He first went to India, and then to Canada, where he joined the Grand Trunk Railway and became chief engineer to the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was photographed in the Press with Lord Strathcona driving the last spike at Craigellachie for the CPR. He was general superintendent of shipping and superintendent of rolling stock at Montreal. A member of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, he became president of the Canadian Railway Club, Squire of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and the Yukon.

Lacey Johnson served in the First World War as Colonel, Canadian Heavy Artillery and was responsible for the munitions output of Canada. He died in Montreal in 1915.