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Johnston, Harold Crawford (1866 - 1945)

Born
1866
Jamberoo, New South Wales, Australia
Died
1945
Auchenflower, Queensland, Australia

Summary

Johnston was born in Jamberoo, NSW, in 1866 to an Irish-born father and Australian-born mother. He worked successively as a bank clerk, labourer, journalist, land-agent and shopkeeper in Campbelltown, Goulburn, Kempsey and Sydney, and wrote regularly for the Bulletin. His books include the futuristic novel The Electric Gun - a tale of love and socialism (1911), a work of social criticism written under the pseudonym 'R.G.S. Williams', Australian White Slaves (1911), a collection of poetry, The Undying Warrior (1944), and an illustrated book for children, The Voice of the Bush (1944).

Details

He married twice and by his first wife, Eleanor Macklin, had 4 children, one of whom died as a result of injuries sustained in WW1. After the death of his second wife, Alice Holmes, he spent his last years with his daughter Enid Delalande, a pioneering woman journalist for the ABC in Brisbane. He died in Auchenflower, Brisbane in 1945

In The Electric Gun main characters bear the Christian names of his children. In The Voice of the Bush the human protagonists are his grandchildren (Deirdre and Judith) through his youngest daughter Eileen. He lived for some time with Eileen's family in Melbourne while working on this book.

(Information supplied by Johnston's great grandson, Jonathan Wooding, Sir Warwick Fairfax Professor of Celtic Studies, School of Letters, Art, and Media, University of Sydney.)

Published resources

Books

  • Johnston, Harold, The electric gun : a tale of love and socialism, Websdale, Shoosmith, Sydney, 1911, 259 pp. Details

Created: 3 June 2009, Last modified: 10 June 2015