Bernard Renouf "Johnny" Johnston

Johnny Johnston in Hong Kong, 1978. Image ©HKSAR Government

Lt.-Col. Bernard Renouf "Johnny" Johnston was a British Army officer.

Background

Johnston had two brothers, Reginald and Gilbert, and a sister Dorothy. He was educated at Tonbridge School in Kent from 1934 to 1938.

Army Career

He served in the 48th Royal Tank Regiment from 1939-41, and in the Royal Armoured Corps from 1941-47. He received an emergency commission as a 2nd Lieutenant on 21 March 1942.

Johnston was awarded the MBE in 1947 "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Netherlands East Indies prior to 30th November, 1946." The London Gazette listed his serial number as 229192.

From 1948 to 1975 he served in the 7th Royal Tank Regiment. He was promoted to the substantive rank of captain in 1948. He was promoted to Major on 14 February 1955. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on 31 December 1966. Johnston was appointed to the special list on 10 January 1971. Johnston retired from the Army on 1 April 1975.

Psyops

Johnston was involved in psyops training in the late 1960s at the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum.

Part of Johnson's statement (given anonymously as INQ 1873) to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was redacted to protect his identity. However a passage from this was read into the record of the inquiry with the assent of INQ 1873. This stated that:

In April 1968 I was sent to the United States military base at Fort Bragg in North Carolina to attend a four-month course at the special warfare school. I then spent two years as an instructor at the joint warfare establishment at Old Sarum Wiltshire, and from there went directly to Northern Ireland.

A statement by Maurice Tugwell to the inquiry confirmed that INQ 1873 'had been the head of the Army Psychological Operations branch at the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum' and 'a PsyOps specialist.'

Ireland

Information organisations in Northern Ireland in January 1972

The McGurk's Bar Massacre campaign has named Johnston is INQ 1873, an anonomyous wtness who testified to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. As will be seen below, the correspondence between INQ 1873's statement and prior accounts of Johnston's career in Ireland suggest this is correct.

July 1970 visit

INQ 1873 visited Northern Ireland on 15-17 July 1970 shortly after the Falls Curfew, while serving as GSO I (PSYOPS) JWE. He met with staff officers at HQNI, R Burroughs, the UK Government Representative in Northern Ireland, and Tom Roberts - Deputy Director of Information, Government Information Services.

In his report on the visit, INQ 1873 made the following recommendations:

a. The feasibility of setting [up] a radio station on the lines of a Forces Broadcasting Station be examined.

b. The feasibility of establishing a committee for the co-ordination of psyops activities and for dissemination of information be established.

c. A Psyops Staff Officer is placed on call to HQ Northern Ireland, and will visit HQNI periodically.

d. An examination is made on the effectiveness of current left wing propaganda activities.

e. PR should be more active and positive wherever possible.

Information Liaison Department

According to Paul Foot in his book Who Framed Colin Wallace 'a new unit' in Army HQ in Northern Ireland in 1970 called 'Information Liaison - later Information Policy' was 'commanded by a military officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel.' 'The first of these', reported Foot, 'was Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Johnston'.

According to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry:

Lieutenant Colonel INQ 1873 was sent to Northern Ireland in October 1970 in order to run the Information Liaison Department. He was an expert in psyops in combat situations and was responsible for psyops in Northern Ireland under the direction of the Commander Land Forces (CLF).

According to Hugh Mooney, INQ 1873 engaged in low-level psyops with the assistance Colin Wallace. These included distributing leaflets, arranging for officers's wives to write to newspapers, and writing anonymous letters to Private Eye. INQ 1873 also used the HQNI printing press to forge press cards for army photographers. Mooney assumed that this activity was authorised by Lt Gen Harry Tuzo or Maj Gen Anthoy Farrar Hockley. Although, Mooney shared an office with INQ 1873, he told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry he was not involved in these operations andregarded them as ineffectual.

INQ 1873 took part in a meeting recounted by John Rayner on 8 June 1971: Major General Farrar-Hockley called in Lt.Colonel [redacted - INQ 1873] his Psy-Ops expert, who had already prepared a list of offending articles with cuttings, and I went over these with Colonel [INQ 1873] afterwards. Mr Mooney will take them as a basis for discussion with Colonel INQ 1873 today.

In a paper for a meeting on 21 July 1971, INQ 1873 proposed the creation of a psychological operations staff at Headquarters Northern Ireland under the direction of a Psyops Committee, with a working committee handling day-to-day operations. This included the following terms of reference for his own position:

The GSO 1 (Liaison) is to be responsible for:

a. Advice on psyops to commanders and staff in Northern Ireland.

b. Psyops activities in support of the Security Forces against extremist groups in Northern Ireland.

c. Assistance, as required, with the dissemination of information and publicity matters generally.

d. Co-ordination as necessary with other forces and agencies, including the RUC, when implementing psyops activities.

INQ 1873 and Maurice Tugwell both testified to the Saville Inquiry that the Psyops Committee proposal was abandoned without ever having met.

Hugh Mooney said that he did not recall attending a meeting of the Psyops Committee and was “totally puzzled ” by references to the committee. In a report of unknown date written after mid-July 1971 but before Colonel Tugwell’s arrival, Hugh Mooney said that he was a member of a psyops working committee that had recently been set up. It is unclear whether that committee ever met at all. The Working Committee proposed in July 1971 was to have four members. Hugh Mooney’s recollection was that he and Colonel INQ 1873 were the sole members of any psyops committees and that they met informally.

Information Policy Unit

In September 1971, the Information Liaison Department was replaced by the Information Policy Unit under Col. Maurice Tugwell. INQ1873 was appointed as his deputy.

A new Military Information Policy Committee met on 17 November 1971, and agreed the terms of reference for a Military Information Working Party. INQ 1873's position as GSO I Liaison carried membership of the latter.

According to Peter Watson, Johnston gave a talk on Psyops at a course held on 14-18 February 1972:

Lt-Col. B. R. Johnston, Britain's foremost psywar expert, distinguishes three phases of an insurgency, according to a classified talk which he gave at the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum. The first of these is the identification and isolation of hostile elements; the second, he says, is the elimination of the rebel elements and the projection of a favourable image of the British forces; and the third is the consolidation of these gains, negotiation towards amnesty, and the winding down of hostilities. Active psywar comes in at the end of phase one. At the time of this talk (1972), the war in Northern Ireland was in phase two, according to Johnston.

Hong Kong

Johnston headed the Hong Kong government's Information Services Department from 9 June 1979 to 31 December 1979 as Acting Director of Information Services.

In his memoir of the department, Moss describes Johnston's time in charge as follows:

The man who took over from Slimming, in an acting capacity until Bob Sun's return to the department as DIS on January 1, 1980, was Bernard Renouf Johnston, better known as 'Johnny'. Already thoroughly familiar with the [Vietnamese] refugees issue, Johnston organised special documentary films, booklets and information kits designed to highlight the burden posed for an already overcrowded territory that was not receiving the co-operation it needed from countries far better equipped to share the load. Though he often personally organised briefings and conducted tours of improvised refugee centres, Johnston also busied himself with other departmental priorities, including the importance he attached to recreational events organised by the staff club. For relaxation he embarked on weekend excursions to the New Territories and outlying islands with his wife Gwyneth, a noted authority on butterflies who succeeded in rearing lesser-known species in a special room assigned for the purpose in their government quarters in Mount Austin Road. Together they collaborated on a book on Hong Kong butterflies, published by ISD.

Johnston was still working as Deputy Director of the Department in 1984.

Last Years

Johnston died on the 23 March 2009, aged 88.