Battery Sergeant Major George Nolan Johnston (known as Nolan)
Bank staff magazine - photograph courtesy of Rodney Sweetnam
Johnston was born at 7 Glandore Street, Belfast on 8th February 1913 to William George Johnston, Traveller and Jeannie Johnston nee Nolan. They were married on 9th June 1911 at St Peter's Church of Ireland, Belfast.
Following his education at Fortwilliam National School and Belfast Royal Academy, Johnston joined the bank on 18th February 1932 at Westport branch and was later transferred to Dungannon branch.
On 14th June 1940, George volunteered and enlisted into the Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery and served in Dover, the Middle East (Desert, Syria & Palestine), Sicily, Italy and Greece rising to the rank of Battery Sergeant Major. See below for a very detailed record of his military service.
Following his education at Fortwilliam National School and Belfast Royal Academy, Johnston joined the bank on 18th February 1932 at Westport branch and was later transferred to Dungannon branch.
On 14th June 1940, George volunteered and enlisted into the Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery and served in Dover, the Middle East (Desert, Syria & Palestine), Sicily, Italy and Greece rising to the rank of Battery Sergeant Major. See below for a very detailed record of his military service.
In 1941, Johnston married Miss Margaret McManus of Dungannon. They had a son, Lindsay Nolan Johnston.
After demobilisation in 1946, Johnston returned to the bank and served in Donegall Place and Dungannon (1959 - Cashier) branches. Promotions followed to Gortin (1966 - Manager), Strabane (1969 - Manager) and Shaftesbury Square (1973 - Manager).
Johnstone retired on 17th February 1977.
Nolan Johnston died on 13th February 1987 and left a son Lindsay, a sister and other relatives. His wife, Peggy pre-deceased him.
The book, 'The Ulster Bank Story' by Lyn Gallagher mentions a George Johnston on page 50. He was the manager of Clones branch.
The following article is extracted from this excellent website, Remembrance NI Org compiled by Houston McKelvey.
Banker joins the Gunners and goes to war
Nolan Johnston recalls his grandfather George Nolan Johnston
George was born in Belfast, on the 8th February 1913. He attended Belfast Royal Academy and then gained employment with the Ulster Bank. He was sent to Westport, Co. Mayo to work for some time and returned to take up a position in Dungannon.The majority of his friends had joined the 8th Belfast Heavy AA Regiment at the start of World War II. George volunteered for a mixed heavy/light AA battery. He underwent training at Gillingham and was posted to a Light AA Defence Unit in Dover, after this he went to Forfar before embarking oversees on the SS Tegleberg departing Scotland in March 1943. This ship took him to Capetown and then up the African coast where he landed on 11 May 1943. He travelled to Alexandria and then with his driver Charlie Smirk, he was sent to Egypt via Beirut. In July 1943 he was aboard a ship and since he was the only officer on board, he was given the sealed orders for Operation Husky 'Detachment 66LAA Regiment. Sergeant Johnston, army number 1573402, read the orders to the troops. On the 10/07/1943 he and his troops landed in Syracuse, after a stint there he headed to northern Italy to Fozzia Main with the 176 Battery. Then on to Carizuola and Taranti where he then sailed for Athens. In June 1945 he returned to Italy and when the end of the war was announced he joined the Tunisian Police and guarded Milan Central Station. From Milan he went to Domodossola until his discharge from the army.
From the memoirs of George Nolan Johnston - The early days
Most of my Belfast school friends had joined the Territorial Army. A great many of them had joined the 8th Belfast Heavy AA Regiment based at Dunmore, Antrim Road, Belfast. When war broke out they were immediately called up, albeit to gun sites very close to their homes in Belfast. They were near enough to their homes to come to their mothers about one day per week, to get their washing done and depart with scones, cakes and the like. I was released by the Ulster Bank, Dungannon on June 14 and for four days was a ‘free man’. I had volunteered for a mixed heavy/light AA Battery with regimental headquarters in the Antrim Road and on June 18, 1940, around the time that France fell, I presented myself for duty. On the gate of the large house standing in its own grounds, opposite Chichester Park, was a soldier with a large chin who challenged me as I approached. I told him I had come to join up, asked him what it was like, and he said that it wasn’t so bad, but the grub wasn’t great. I later discovered that he was one of the members of flute band from the Willowfield area, who had joined up on condition that they stayed together as a band. A promise that the Army promptly forgot.
Clifton Street and a shilling
From here I was sent to Clifton Street, where I signed on, was given a shilling, and put on a truck for Orangefield House. I was checked through there for Heavy AA and put in a truck for Tyrone House on the Malone Road. Headquarters of, so I was told, to my consternation, 'the Suicide Squad'. The only information I could get as to our role was that we dealt with dive-bombers. Which, as it turned out, was approximately true. But, especially compared with the role of Heavies, firing into the night at an unseen target at high altitude was really great stuff. We had a small taste of it later, in Dover and again in Sicily. However, here I was, although I did not realise it at the time, in a very queer outfit. The age limits were 29-65 years, "for the defence of Belfast", and by God we had oldies and young. We had a squad of hard old ‘chaws’ with ribbons from the last war, complete with a crowd of secondary school youngsters, myself included, plus a squad of young working class. The most interesting, of course, were the 1914-18 boys, who were really very decent and likeable. Perhaps typical was one, ‘Spivvy’ Bruce, who joined up at about 16 years of age and whose father was an RSM. Spivvy was captured and a prisoner of war until he was released in 1918. On arriving back at his own side street home in Belfast, no one knew him; a stranger was in the house. It transpired that his mother had died when he was a POW and his father had been killed the day he was captured. He lost both sets of teeth over the side of the SS Tegleberg somewhere in the Atlantic en route to Cape Town and Egypt in 1943, and could only eat soft food from then on.
Manning gun sites around Belfast
During this period we manned gun sites around Belfast, mainly down by Dufferin Road, where we manned Bofors guns, Lewis guns and 3" Naval guns. The latter required the shell to be shoved up the breech using the fist. I recall one incident involving this type of weapon, with a South African sergeant, named Heinberg, having his eye blackened by looking down the barrel at the precise moment we shoved a ‘push-through’ down. This was Boy Scout soldiering, we had a ghastly time sleeping in a tent one summer near the power station. Trucks nearly ran over us, the dust was dreadful; we really had neither food (half mile away), water nor sanitation. We had the same in Larne and later in Londonderry. We left Belfast for Larne with expectation from our Sergeant Major. "We send you out with every confidence, you may be in action before dusk, we know that you are trained men, you will not fail". Thereupon we were dispatched for Larne with all necessary equipment in four trucks. The first truck had all the food, the second truck had all the tents, the third truck was full of coal and the fourth truck contained four Lewis guns and ammunition.
Larne and Londonderry
Our detachment had the good fortune to be Truck 2, which gave us all the tents, and on a wet slope above the bandstand on the prom, we set up one of these. We also had in our possession our own blankets and groundsheets, and all the Cornflakes and tinned milk for the whole expedition. We settled down for two or three days with wet clothes, but undercover. We ate Cornflakes and milk until they came out through our eyes. It was about three days before anyone found us. We ended up having great fun at this site and had easily the most efficient gun-team in the Regiment. By a clever piece of war study we changed barrels in about 56 seconds against a Regiment record of about 1 minute 40 seconds. The secret was that I had three enormously strong miners on my team, I could carry a gun barrel on my own, usually a four man job, and another chap who could lift the auto loader, another four man job, on his own. I claim credit for a subtle switch in gun drill, which suddenly changed a passive number 4 into an elephant in action. I achieved a massive breakthrough in the spell of gun-drill. Later, in Egypt, I produced a gun-team which was at least 25% faster than anything in the Middle East. It was a trick in gun-drill of course, greatly enjoyed by the gun-team, but nevertheless would have worked even under fire.
Coping with the Yanks in Derry
We also had spell in Londonderry, and saw the arrival of the first Americans who shambled over the bridge in rubber boots. The British Army marched with a sharp clip-clop; the Yanks shambled in rubber-soled boots. Derry rapidly developed into a battleground between the Yanks and the Navy, coming ashore from a seven-week patrol in a cramped war ship. The Yanks took over the pubs, the Yanks took over the ‘dolls’, and we did not count. I was mainly stationed in a tent at Coleraine but we had occasional nights in town.
Nightlife
We knocked pub doors down pleading for a drink and we toured the shops looking for a cigarette. Occasionally we managed to get drink and visited a dance hall. The number of back-alley fights was very entertaining. Little Irish sailors knocking the daylights out of big Yanks, women screaming, all the fun of the fair. We went over to England. I had been on two or three cruises there by that time. We arrived at Gillingham, Kent, to be trained for a mobile detachment. We were in tents and hence followed a series of mobile exercises to fit us, no doubt, for a mobile desert warfare or mobile invasion warfare.
