Note 6 — REGIMENTAL LISTS.

An interesting memoir of this gallant soldier appeared in the United Service Journal for 1837. He was a native of Dumfriesshire, where his father had a small property of his own. In 1805 he joined the 52nd L.I. as an ensign, and in the year following was appointed to a lieutenancy in the Rifle Brigade (as the old 95th is now styled). As a lieut. he had the good fortune to command one of the four companies of the Rifles which, under Sir S. Beckwith, at the Pass of Barba del Puerco, on 19th March, 1810, so gallantly repulsed 600 chosen French troops who attempted to surprise them at midnight. I extract the following from the above memoir:—“On the 19th Jan., 1812, he was one of the officers who volunteered and led the stormers at the taking of Ciudad Rodrigo, and was fortunate enough to come out unscathed, although one of the first to enter that deadly pass. At the storming of Badajoz on the 6th April, 1812, his name again stood on the list of volunteers for the Forlorn Hope, but as it was claimed by a senior officer of the division, he was obliged to limit his expectations to one of the posts of honour with the storming party. Sir Andrew Barnard, however, who commanded the Light Division, knowing how peculiarly well qualified he was for desperate enterprise, assigned him a post in front of the Forlorn Hope, in the command of a party carrying ropes prepared with nooses to throw over the sword-blades which formed the chevaux-de-frise, in the hope of being able to displace it by dragging it down the breach, but Johnstone and all his party were stricken down before they got within throwing distance. His appearance next morning is thus described by a brother officer, Capt. Kincaid, in Random Shots from a Rifleman, page 287:—‘The first tent that I entered was Johnstone’s. With his shattered arm bandaged, he was lying fast asleep, and coupling his appearance with the daring duty he had been called on to perform but a few hours before in front of the Forlorn Hope, I thought that I had never set my eyes upon a nobler picture of a soldier! His whole appearance, even in sleep, showed exactly as it had been in the execution of that duty; his splendid figure was so disposed as if he was taking the first step in the breach—his eyebrows were elevated—his nostrils still distended, and altogether he looked as if he would clutch the castle in his remaining hand! No one could have seen him at that moment without saying—There lies a hero!’” Johnstone was wounded both at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Promoted maj. 24th Dec., 1829. Quitted the service in 1831. Was Colonial Sec. at Cape of Good Hope, and d. at sea 6th April, 1836.