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VC03   William Johnstone

BORN  06 August 1823

DIED   20 August 1857  AGE   34

VC Won  09 August 1854  AGE  31

Place VC Won  Wardo Island, Baltic Sea

War/Campaign  Crimean War

Name   William Johnstone   No.               

VC Issue No.   3   Awards   VC

Regiment   Royal Navy

Later

Now

Rank VC Won   Stoker

Rank End Of Career   Cook

Place Of Birth   Hanover (gave place of birth as both), Germany and Sweden

Place Of Death   Aboard HMS 'Brunswick' in the West Indies

Buried/Location Ashes  At sea, St Vincent Passage (latitude 13.38N, longitude 61.36W) West Indies

Cremated

Date Buried/Cremated   20 August 1857        

Headstone         Plot/Grave no.         Gazetted   24 February 1857

VC Presented   Registered post

Memorials

P  Named on memorial stone, Bomarsund, South West Finland

By The Way…

Years after winning the Victoria Cross, but still in the navy aboard H.M.S. Brunswick as ships cook, he attacked a fellow sailor with a knife, then using the same knife, cut his own throat and died. He was buried at sea.

VC Held By

County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, California, USA

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Whilst serving as a stoker on H.M.S. Arrogant he went ashore with Lieutenant Bythesea and captured vital dispatches from five Russian soldiers with only one gun between the two of them.

Thank you to Nick & Lorna Martin for photos of St. Vincent Passage

Many thanks to Paul Barker for this photo.

Click on it to go to his website.