Ronald Marr Johnson
Brigadier General Ronald Marr Johnson (1873-1925).
1925 Obituary
"We regret to have to announce the death of Brigadier-General R. Marr Johnson, C.M.G., D. S. O., which occurred on November 15th, after a serious illness, following an operation. General Johnson was a director and deputy chairman of Radio Communication Co. Ltd., having joined the board of that company shortly after the completion of a brilliant military career in the Royal Regiment of Artillery.
Ronald Marr Johnson was born on November 4th, 1873. He received his early education at Fonthill and afterwards at Radley. His military training was gained at the R.M.A., Woolwich, and at the Staff College at Quetta. He was engaged in the Boxer campaign in 1900, and altogether did fourteen years' duty in the Far East.
General Johnson was mainly responsible for the plan of movement of troops, horses, guns, transport and supplies, by rail and sea, at the outbreak of the Great War, and received the decoration of the Legion of Honour for his services in this connection. During the first year of the war he controlled all the railway transport in the British forward zone in France. In August, 1915, he took over command of a Field Artillery Brigade, with which he went through the Battle of Loos. In January, 1916, he became G. S. O. I. to the 19th Division under General Sir T. Bridges, now Governor of South Australia. Early in 1917 he came home to become G. S. O. I. of the 71st Division at Colchester, where his special responsibility was the Clacton Peninsula defences. In the autumn of that year he returned to France and became C.R.A. of the 29th Division. He had already been awarded the D. S. O. for gallantry in the Somme Battle in July, 1916, and his excellent work during the final advance in 1918 brought the C.M.G. and the French Croix de Guerro. General Johnson's Division was the first to reach the Cologne Bridgehead, where it arrived on December 13th. He remained with the Army of Occupation until May 1919, when he returned to England. In 1920 he took over the International Volunteer Corps at Shanghai, a force of about 1400 men, which he reorganised and re-equipped. Shortly after his retirement from the Army, Radio Communication Co, Ltd., was fortunate in securing his services as above mentioned." [1]