George Johnstone

Major-General George Johnstone (died 19 December 1825) was a British Army officer. He was commissioned into the infantry 1780, serving in Grenada during Fédon's rebellion in 1795-96. He was afterwards transferred to command a regiment of fencibles in New Brunswick, where he served for a year as acting Lieutenant Governor. In 1810, he was given command of a Highland regiment which served on garrison duty in Cape Colony. Johnstone was promoted to major general in 1814 and given command of the 6th Brigade in the 1815 Waterloo campaign. His brigade was not engaged in the 18 June Battle of Waterloo as they were posted to the extreme right flank, protecting the approaches to Brussels and Ostend. His men fought in the subsequent advance to Paris and helped to storm the fortress of Cambrai on 24 June. Early career George Johnstone was appointed ensign in the 29th Regiment of Foot on 1 November 1780. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1787, captain lieutenant in 1792, adjutant in 1793 and captain in 1794. During this time, the regiment was based at various locations in England, but in early 1793, they were posted to Hilsea Barracks near Portsmouth, where they were to provide detachments of soldiers to act as marines aboard Royal Navy warships during the War of the First Coalition. At the end of December 1794, Johnstone joined a battalion of 21 officers and 640 men, formed from those in the 29th who were not detached to warships; they embarked on the troopship Maria for the Caribbean island of Grenada, where discontent would lead to an insurrection, known as Fédon's Rebellion or the Brigand's War, in the coming months. On their return to England in July 1796, the battalion had been reduced by battle casualties and disease to 5 officers and 87 men. Johnstone was promoted to major in 1799. On 9 July 1803, Johnstone was promoted to lieutenant colonel and posted to operational command of the New Brunswick Fencibles, a new local defence regiment later redesignated the 104th (New Brunswick) Regiment of Foot. Johnstone was in Scotland at the time of his appointment and recruited Scottish and Irish men for his new regiment before embarking for British North America. The British province of New Brunswick was regarded as strategically important because of its border with the United States; however, the appointed lieutenant governor, Thomas Carleton, had returned to the United Kingdom early in 1803 and refused to return in a dispute about seniority.