Robert Johnston

Fusilier Robert Johnston of Belfast died on 19th May 1940 while serving with 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers as part of the British Expeditionary Force.

Fusilier

Robert Johnston

6975687

Fusilier Robert Johnston died on 19th May 1940 in Belgium. By mid-May 1940, 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers were already in retreat, an action that would lead the regiment to take part in the historic Dunkirk evacuation.

Fusilier Robert Johnston (6975687) served in 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers during the Second World War. He was the son of David Johnston and Mary Johnston, and the husband of Mary Johnston of Belfast.

He died on 19th May 1940 aged 32 years old. At the time, 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers were part of the rear-guard during the British Expeditionary Force retreat to Dunkirk. That day, the Luftwaffe carried out bombing and strafing of the Fusiliers’ position along a 5,000-yard front north-east of Ninove near the River Dendre.

Robert Johnston’s grave is in Grave 266 of Outer Communal Cemetery, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. His headston bears the inscription:

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, will I remember thee.