'The deceased was born in 1873, and was"educated at Fonthill, Rad-Jey and Woolwich, having decided to join the Royal' Artillery. His first active service was in China in 1900, and he saw quite a considerable stretch of the interior while here, being one, of a detachment sent! far distant from Peking in pursuit of a marauding party, "Our readers will doubtless recollect an altogether delightful article he wrote in our Christmas number a few veal describing the Christmas spent in what was the tively little known The Boxer Camps went to India with his battery, while there took the staff course at Quetta. Then came one of the most interesting periods of his career, for as Major he was brought to the War Ofice, his immediate chief being the late Sir Henry Wilson, one of the most brilliant soldiers the British Army has ever produced and 'a man for whom Col. Marr Johnson had an enormous admiration.
Preparing for 1914
These were the days when the British General Staff, realizing the inevitability of war, did everything possible to prepare for it, although jeans in charge "continued to live in belief that there was no warlike atmosphere. In spite of the Politicians, however, the British Army preparations were complete at any time months before the out~ Dreak, A" scheme was in being whereby on the word "Mobilize" being placed on the wires, all units would know where to entrain for Channel or other ports and thereafter what steamer would convey them to France. The working~ out of such a time-table must have been the most, arduous of tasks, and it was a never ending one, for railway companies: change their time-tables monthly and. the War Office arrangements. had-to be amended to conform to them. For months prior male '80 Well, did he perform his August 014 (his linetable wae ands of. Major Marr John-
Subsequently Major Marr Johnson returned to a Batter; became Brigadier-General of a Division. This position held by a Colonel who com: ids the Artillery Brigade, hence his title of Colonel while here with the change to Brigadier-General, mentioned in.V.C. Orders published to-day.
Col. Marr Johnson knew Staff work intimately, and a conversation with him would give the average soldier who had never done any of it but who had done lot of work in the trenches a very different conception of what it entailed, There was no greater relief from the of it, he used to say, than getting back to one's battery and being in the fighting zone again. Col. Marr Johnson, saw equally his share of. staff work and fighting in the European War, and deservedly was awarded the D.S.0. and made CING,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.