HISTORY

A BRIEF

BIOGRAPHY

OF CAPTAIN

W. E. JOHNS

ROGER HARRIS

Photo: RAF Museum

Captain James Bigglesworth has made an indelible

mark on aviation history, however fictional character he may be. Anyway, it should not be forgotten

that many of his stories are based on real events

that his creator either experienced himself or heard

from fellow aviators. Who was the man who influenced millions of boys so much that they later became aviators too?

William Earl Johns (his name is often incorrectly spelt with an “e” on the end of Earl) was born

on Sunday February 5, 1893 at Mole Wood Road,

Bengeo in Hertfordshire. His father, Richard

Eastman Johns was a tailor, and his mother

Elizabeth Johns (nee Earl) was the daughter

of a master butcher. Johns had a younger brother, Russell Ernest Johns, who was born on

October 24, 1895.

Army calls

Johns' early ambition was to be a soldier.

In January 1905, he went to Hertford Grammar School (now the Richard Hale School,

Hertford) where the headmaster was Major

Kinman. Some of his experiences here went

into the book BIGGLES GOES TO SCHOOL. Not

a particularly able scholar, Johns was a crack

shot with a rifle. In the summer of 1907, he was

apprenticed to a county municipal surveyor for

four years and in 1912 was appointed as a sanitary inspector in Swaffham in Norfolk. Soon

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after, his father died of tuberculosis at the age

of 47. Johns soon spotted a "pretty girl" called

Maude Hunt who was the daughter of the Reverend John Hunt, a vicar at Little Dunham.

It is worth saying that Maude was eleven years

older than him.

On October 4, 1913, Johns joined the Territorial

Army as a Private in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry). This was a cavalry

regiment, so he had his own horse. In August

1914 the Great War began and Johns' regiment

was mobilised. He later wrote that he "galloped down the drive to what, in my youthful folly,

I supposed was going to be death or glory. I had

yet to learn that in war there is plenty of death

but little glory; that in war only death is real; that

glory is simply gilt and tinsel to wrap around

the other so that it looks less like what it really

is". Like many other couples, faced with an uncertain future, Bill Johns and Maude Hunt got

married on Tuesday October 6, 1914. His brother,

Russell was his best man. Johns' regiment was

in training and on home defence duties until

September 1915 when they received embarkation orders for duty overseas.

The Great War years

Travelling in the SS Olympic to Gallipoli, Johns'

regiment went to fight alongside the ANZAC

(Australian and New Zealand Army Corps)

against the Turks and the Germans. Disease

was the biggest problem for Johns' regiment,

but he served under fire in the trenches until

the regiment was withdrawn in December 1915.

Johns was to recount a number of tales of instant death from these times. Sent initially to

Alexandria, the regiment next went to form part

of the defences to the Suez Canal. On March 18,

1916, Maude gave birth to Johns' son who was

christened William Earl Carmichael Johns but

was known as “Jack” to distinguish him from

his father. Johns trained as a machine gunner

and was transferred on 1st September 1916 to

a new force (only founded in October 1915), the

Machine Gun Corps. He was also promoted to

Lance Corporal. After brief leave in England,

Johns was then sent to Salonika in Greece.

Here he served in the trenches and fought in

a number of battles. In April 1917 he took part

in the spring offensive. Johns came down with

malaria and whilst in hospital in Salonika, he

put in for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. On September 26, 1917, Johns was granted

a temporary commission as Second Lieutenant

and posted back to England to learn to fly at No.

1 School of Aeronautics at Reading. He was taught by Captain Ashton. He learnt in "an old Rumpity"; a Maurice Farman Shorthorn, and many

INFO Eduard - September 2021