Private Edward Ernest JOHNSON (242)
2nd Australian Machine Gun Battalion, Australian Machine Gun Corps

Date of birth: 20th March 1885
Date of death: 13th May 1918

Killed in action aged 33
Commemorated on the Australian Memorial at Villiers Bretonneux
He was born at Edinburgh on the 20th of March 1885.

He was educated at Etchingham Park School, Finchley, and at the King's School Canterbury from May 1899 to July 1901.

In 1902 he emigrated to Australia where he became a farmer and distiller of eucalyptus oil at Wychitella in Victoria.

He enlisted into the army at Clare in New South Wales on the 25th of January 1916 and was sent to Liverpool in New South Wales, the location of the main military camp on the outskirts of Sydney.

On the 16th of April 1916 he sailed for Europe aboard the HMAT Ceramic as a reinforcement for the 1st Machine Gun Company but was subsequently transferred to the 5th Company. In February 1918 the 5th Company merged with the 6th, 7th and 22nd Companies to form the 2nd Australian Machine Gun Battalion.

On the 10th of May 1918 the battalion went into the line near Ribecourt. The war diary makes no mention of casualties but there was occasional shelling of their positions. Edward Johnson was killed on the 13th.
 

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