JOHNSON, Herbert

Lieutenant Herbert Johnson died of illness at the Military Hospital, Buchanan, Stirling, on 17 March 1944 at 03.45hrs. The Register of Deaths records his details as "(Detective Sergeant, Police Force) Lieutenant KOY Light Infantry (attached Commandos)" and his cause of death as "chronic interstitial nephritis". His name is recorded on the Westminster Abbey Commando Roll of Honour and on the Wiltshire Constabulary WW2 Roll of Honour. Son of Herbert and Emily Johnson, of Barnsley; husband of Irene Johnson, of Bemerton, Salisbury.

Detective Sergeant Johnson, Chippenham Police Division, Wiltshire Constabulary, volunteered for the commandos and in July 1942 joined the 2nd Police Intake at the Commando Depot (Commando Basic Training Centre), Achnacarry. After completing his commando course he was nominally transferred to the K.O.Y.L.I.

This archive does not know which commando unit he was first posted to although newspaper reports indicate the Meditteranean theatre of war and had been in North Africa and Gibraltar. On 4 December 1943 he completed officer training at an Officer Cadet Training Unit and was commissioned Second Lieutenant.