Name
Macfie Keith-Johnston
08 June 1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/09/1915
17
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Flight Sub-Lieutenant
Royal Naval Air Service
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SHEERNESS CEMETERY, ISLE OF SHEPPEY
CC. 46.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St Peter’s Church Memorial, Bushey Heath, St Peter’s Church, Bushey Heath, memorial window
Pre War
Born in Lee, Kent on 8 June 1898, Macfie Keith-Johnston was the youngest son of Robert and Jessy Banitga (possibly Bannitza) (née Macfie) Keith-Johnston. His parents were married on 14 June 1892.
At the 1901 Census, the family were living at 2 The Myrtles, Foots Cray, Kent. His father was employed as a journalist, working part of the time at home. There are four children; Elsie, David, Colin and Macfie. Robert and Jessy were 36 and 34 years old and the children were 7, 5, 4 and 2 respectively. Birthplaces for the family are given as Hornsey, London for Robert, Sweden for Jessy, Willesden Green for Elsie and David, and Lee in Kent for Colin and Macfie. Also present was Ada Partridge, their domestic cook.
By the time of the 1911 Census, Macfie's parents had moved to Sparrows Herne Lodge in Bushey, a sizeable house which stood just above Bushey Library, where Upton Lodge Close is today. It was later re-named ‘Upton Lodge’. His father was now working as a Literary Agent’s Manager. Also present were their daughter Elsie Emily and Roberts’ father and sister, John Alexander Johnston and Isabel Keith-Johnston. Their ages are 77 and 25 years respectively. The family have a cook and now also a housemaid.
Neither Macfie nor David were living with their parents at the 1911 Census. Macfie was a boarder at Temple Grove School in Eastbourne and David was a boarder at Felsted School at Felsted in Essex.
Wartime Service
Macfie Keith-Johnston joined the Royal Naval Air Service and was training to be a pilot when he died, aged 17, in a flying accident at Eastchurch. The accident occurred during a flight to obtain his pilot’s certificate. The other pilot was a Canadian, Flight Sub-Lieutenant James M Alexander.
His plane was in a collision with another machine at a height of several hundred feet. It is reported that the wingtips of the two machines met and one of them collapsed at once. The other apparently made some attempt to get down with a broken extension, but caught fire at about 200 feet and fell. Both pilots were killed on the spot. The accident occurred on 12 September 1915, just a month after his eldest brother, Flight Sub-Lieutenant David Keith-Johnston, had been killed in action in Belgium.
The following article appeared in the Watford Observer in September 1915
Fatal flying accident
Early in the week Mr & Mrs R. Keith-Johnston received the sad news that their youngest son. Flight Sub-Lieutenant Macfie Keith-Johnston had been killed at Eastchurch while flying. Only a month ago Mr & Mrs Keith-Johnston lost their eldest son, Flight Lieutenant David Keith-Johnston, who was killed while on active service off Ostend. To the bereaved parents, whose long residence in Bushey Heath has made them well known in the village, the greatest sympathy has been extended.
The fatality by which Flight Sub-Lieutenant Macfie met his death was the extremely rare occurrence of a collision between two aeroplanes. How this occurred does not admit of explanation. Flight Sub-Lieutenant Keith-Johnston was flying on the day of the accident, last Sunday, for a pilot’s certificate. While in the air, he collided with another machine, whose pilot was Flight Sub-Lieutenant James Morrow Alexander, a Canadian. Both men were instantly killed and the machines wrecked.
An impressive funeral service took place at Sheerness on Wednesday, the bodies being interred in the Naval cemetery there. Full Naval honours were paid to the memory of the deceased officers; the flag-draped coffins were born on gun carriages with officers of their own rank acting as pall-bearers. Many lovely wreaths from their brother officers were laid on the grave. The funeral service was conducted by Rev F D Windsor, who was Flight Sub-Lieutenant Keith-Johnston’s housemaster of Felsted School.
The deceased officer was born at Lee, Kent, on 8 June 1898. He was educated at Temple Grove, Eastbourne and at Felsted. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service under two months ago. At first, on account of his youth his application was not accepted, but the representation of those who knew the excellent qualities of his elder brother, secured him admission, and he quickly shaped into a fine airman. The three sons of Mr & Mrs Keith-Johnston , two of whom they have lost, were well known in Bushey Heath.
Both Macfie and David are commemorated on the Bushey Memorial and at St Peter’s Church, Bushey Heath. Members of the St Peter’s Church congregation also gave two groups of three windows in memory of their loved ones who died in the Great War. These are located in the Chapel of St George, which is itself a memorial.
The Imperial War Museums’ website gives the inscription for the first window as St Alban – “IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF DAVID KEITH JOHNSTON RNAS AGED 20 YEARS AND MARTIN K JOHNSTON RNAS AGED 17 YEARS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY 10TH AUGUST 1915 AND 12TH SEPTEMBER 1915.” [Note: It is assumed the inscription is incorrectly transcribed in the IWM website and is correctly given as Macfie on the actual memorial].
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record for Macfie gives the address for his parents as Bushey Heath, Herts. However, that for his brother who died only a few weeks earlier gives their address as Red May, Elms Lane, Sudbury, Middlesex.
Additional Information
Information provided with the kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project – Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk.
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Andrew Palmer, Paul Johnson
