Edinburgh Bookshelf

Kay's Originals Vol. 2

Search

326 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. months afterwards. From the effects of this wound he suffered occasionally as long as he lived. He afterwards served at Gibraltar, under his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent; and, in the West Indies, was present at the capture of St. Lucie and Tobago in 1803. The following year he was promoted to a company. In 1807 Captain Johnstone was married, at Springkell, to Miss Isabella Maxwell, a young lady then residing at Dumfries, daughter of the late William Maxwell, Esq., of the East India Company’s Civil Service ; and from 1808 until 1814, when he was promoted to the rank of Major in the army, he acted as Major of Brigade to the Staff in Scotland. In consequence of very severe suffering, occasioned by the wound in his foot, in 1814 he was induced to apply to Lord Palmerston (then Secretary at wa;) to be placed on the pension list. His claims, though he was unsuccessful in his application, were strongly recommended by his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, whose letter to the Secretary not only speaks highly of the character of Major Johnstone as an officer and a soldier, but displays the kindness of heart and the warmth of feeling with which his Royal Highness invariably advocated the claims of every deserving officer who served under his command. ,The following is a copy of the letter :- December 21, 1814. “My Dear Lord,-Having been applied to by Major Johnstone, of the 71st Regiment, who was formerly of the Royal Scots, for a letter to your lordship, to strengthen his claims to an allowance for a wound received in Egypt, I beg to state to your lordship that I was informed by the late Lieut. -Colonel Duncan Campbell, who commanded the battalion at the time, that such was Major Johnstone’s gallantry, that, although pressed by his medical attendants to lay himself up till the ball could be extracted, he returned to his duty. At the time he was unable to walk, and served the remainder of the campaign with the ball in his foot, on horseback. I am also enabled to declare, that at various times, while under my command, the recurrence of severe pains and cramps, from the effects of that wound, incapacitated him from doing his duty, and I understand that the sanie is frequently the case at this time. It may also be right to observe, at the storming of Morne Fortune, in St. Lucie, in 1803, where Captain Johnstone headed the light infantry of the second battalion of the Royal Scots, he was particularly mentioned to me by Lieut.-Colonel M‘Donald, wha commanded the battalion, as having been the second man in the Fort, notwithstanding his lameness, into which he was literally lifted by the men, from his inability on that account to scramble in himself; and I well remember at the time it being considered by all who heard of it as a very distinguished act of gallantry, which in my humble opinion, and I will venture to say will, in your lordship’s, greatly enhance his claims to the allowance he iow solicits. “ To Lord Palmerston, Secretary at War, etc. etc. (Signed) EDWARD.” Having in 1812 exchanged into the 71st Light Infantry, Major Johnstone was with that regiment at Waterloo, where, on the 18th of June 1815, he was again severely wounded, but did not leave the field. In 1830 he retired on half-pay, in consequence of the broken state of his health, occasioned in a great measure by the different wounds he had received. From this period he resided chiefly in Edinburgh, where, in the quiet of domestic life, his latter years were devoted to religion ; and, though somewhat unexpectedly summoned, he met the U last enemy of man ” in the strong confidence of faith and hope. He died on the 21st of May 1832, on which day he completed his fifty-second year.
Volume 9 Page 301
  Shrink Shrink   Print Print