Rear Admiral Clarence "Johnny" Howard-Johnston (1903–1996) was a British soldier and inventor. Later, as an admiral, he specialised in

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...

during the inter-war years. Clarence Johnston's parents were American and Scottish, and both families were involved in engineering. He was brought up in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, France and later adopted the name Howard-Johnston, appending one of his father's forenames to his surname to distinguish himself from being the bearer of a common surname. He was known as "Johnny", as he disliked the name Clarence. According to one source, Howard-Johnston entered the Royal Navy in 1917 but his obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' says he first went to sea in 1922 as a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...

. The sources differ, too, regarding the next phase of his career, with ''The Times'' saying he spent some time on secondment in France and then was posted to China as second-in-command of but another version saying that he was a lieutenant in 1925 when he served on HMS ''Tarantula'' on the

Yangtze river The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

. By 1931, he had decided to specialise in anti-submarine warfare, and served in destroyers and the anti-submarine training centre at . It was here that he invented the Towed Asdic Repeater Target. By 1937, he had become a commander – his first command was . After Viscount he spent some time on secondment to the

Royal Hellenic Navy The Hellenic Navy (HN; el, Πολεμικό Ναυτικό, Polemikó Naftikó, War Navy, abbreviated ΠΝ) is the Navy, naval force of Greece, part of the Hellenic Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy historically hails from the naval forces of ...

, where he was decorated by the Greeks. By the outbreak of the Second World War, he was back at the Admiralty but in 1940 was taken to organise anti-submarine operations in Norway. He received a DSC here, although not for anti-submarine duties: instead, for the evacuations at Andalsnes and

Molde Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord. The administrative centre of the m ...

. A month later, he was ordered to demolish the port facilities at

St Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

, and received a

Mention in Dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

for this work. Howard-Johnston was then transferred to command on the north Atlantic convoys, for which he received another Mention in Dispatches – and then the DSO, for the sinking of '' U-651''. He was then transferred to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, to train others, before being promoted to captain in 1943, and had been made director of the Anti-Submarine Division at the Admiralty. In 1945, he was given command of , and later, . In 1951, while at ''Vernon'', he had to organise the unsuccessful search for , on which his son was serving. There were no survivors. In 1953, he was promoted to rear-admiral, and served on NATO staff before finally retiring.

Marriages

Howard-Johnston was married three times. He had a son from his first marriage, who died on the ''Affray'', and later married Lady Alexandra Henrietta Louisa Haig, a daughter of Field Marshal Earl Haig, with whom he had two sons and a daughter before that marriage also ended in divorce. His final marriage was to Paulette Helleu and was childless.

References

External links

The Papers of Rear-Admiral Clarence Howard-Johnston
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Clarence 1906 births 1996 deaths Royal Navy admirals of World War II British people of Scottish descent British people of American descent 20th-century British inventors