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Alton Clive Johns, 1916. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-J1872.

Clive Johns

Born in Pukekohe in September 1893, Alton Clive Johns, known as Clive, was the youngest of John and Martha Johns’ 12 children.1 He was educated at Pukekohe High School and Auckland Grammar School and studied Commerce at Auckland University College (AUC) in 1914 and 1915.2 A keen hockey player, Johns was a member of the Mt Eden Hockey Club, secretary of the Auckland Hockey Association and part of the 1914 Auckland representative hockey team.3 His elder brothers Victor Roy Johns and William Henwood Johns also attended AUC and are both on the Roll of Honour.

Clive Johns was working as a clerk at L.D. Nathan and Co in Shortland Street when he enlisted in May 1916 with the 3rd Company Auckland Infantry Battalion.4 He embarked for England in October, celebrated Christmas at sea, and arrived in Plymouth in thick fog on 29 December.5 Johns’ diaries and letters to his family held by the Alexander Turnbull Library and the Auckland War Memorial Museum provide a detailed account of his journey to England and subsequent service on the Western Front with the 9th Company (Hawkes Bay), 1st Battalion, Wellington Infantry Regiment (WIR).6

‘Had the wound been at all serious I would have cabled at first opportunity but being slight I didn’t think it necessary… I hope none of the false reports have reached you... I’ll try not to get hit next time and save all this trouble.’

Clive Johns to sister Ada, 29 June 1917. MS Papers 11253-33, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

A YMCA canteen at the New Zealand Infantry and General Base Depot Etaples where Johns recuperated in 1917.
Ref: 1/2-013426-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

`At times I get a piercing pain round my lung; whether it will improve when I am up and walking I can’t say, but I can’t take a very deep breath and am afraid to yawn properly.’

Clive Johns to his sister Ada, 26 November 1917. MS Papers 11253-33, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

In the trenches

It was still foggy when Johns arrived at Sling Camp near Salisbury on the last day of 1916. After further training, he shipped to France in early February 1917 and joined the 1st Battalion, WIR at Pont de Nieppe, near Armentieres.7

During April and May, Johns’ unit was based across the border in Belgium patrolling and preparing for the planned offensive to capture the village of Messines.8  This included digging an extensive new trench system into no man’s land to serve as a starting point for the attack.9 On the evening of 6 June as his unit assembled for the offensive, Johns noted that ‘everyone looks other than cheery’.10  At about 10pm, after a cup of tea, they began the long march to the frontline. Their progress was hampered by the ‘large amount of tear gas sent over by Fritz’ and they eventually reached their assembly point at 3am.11 Their trench was heavily shelled while they waited for their turn to advance.  At least four men were killed and several wounded, including Johns.12


New Zealand Troops training for the attack on Messines, 1917.
Ref: 1/2-012754-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

With only a slight wound to his shoulder, Johns helped carry Private Arthur Blair, whose legs were badly injured, to a nearby dressing station where Johns also had his wound dressed.  He was transferred to No 2 Stationary Hospital, Abbeville and discharged to the New Zealand Infantry and General Base Depot at Etaples to recuperate.13 While visiting the YMCA on 27 June, he was stunned to find that he had been listed as killed in action. With the help of an army chaplain, he immediately cabled home that he was `quite well’.14

We can only imagine the emotional turmoil the Johns family went through after receiving the news that Clive was dead and then 10 days later learning that he was alive and well.15  His elder brother William, serving with the Auckland Mounted Rifles in Palestine, greeted the news of Clive’s death with disbelief: `I got the cable last night’, he wrote to his parents, `and it was that unexpected that I don’t think I realise it yet... I never really thought of him being in the firing line’.16  When he heard his brother was safe, an ecstatic William shouted drinks in the Mess to celebrate.17 The family’s happiness was short-lived. On 19 October during the third battle of Ypres, Clive was wounded again, this time seriously, and on 31 October William was killed at Beersheba.18

Johns received multiple wounds to his chest, right arm, thigh and leg when he ‘got mixed up with a shell which landed too close to be comfortable’.19 Near death, he was admitted to the No 44 (Canadian) Casualty Clearing Station where surgeons operated on his chest wounds. He was then transferred by train to No 4 General Hospital.20 The journey took 30 hours on a stretcher, lying uncomfortably on what Johns later discovered was a piece of shrapnel pressing against his spine.21

In November, Johns was evacuated to the Southwark Military Hospital, London for further treatment. Confined to bed, he was visited by members of the New Zealand High Commission and aid workers who brought him toiletries and books.  He also received biscuits, chocolate and cake from family in New Zealand ‘none the worse for their four months journey’.  Johns handed the biscuits around the ward and slipped the nurse a few chocolates as thanks for being gentle while dressing his wounds.22


An unidentified ward in No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital, Brockenhurst.
Accession 1992.750, National Army Museum Te Mata Toa, Waiouru.

Johns’ recovery was slow and one of his chest wounds was still not completely healed when he was moved to No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital, Brockenhurst in January 1918.23  He was ruled as unfit for military service and arrangements were made for his return to New Zealand.  Johns arrived in Auckland in May where he continued to receive medical treatment as an outpatient at Auckland Hospital.24 By July, his health had recovered enough to play hockey and attend dances at the Soldiers Club and Teachers’ Training College.25  Johns was discharged from the military in August and in October, a year after being wounded, returned to work at L.D. Nathan.26

Johns Ltd catalogue 1930. Johns Ltd records, MSS & Archives A-26, folder 2, Special Collections, University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services.

Later life

In 1920, Clive Johns and his elder brother Victor established Johns Ltd, selling radio and electrical equipment and sports goods from a store in Chancery Street.27  He captained the 1922 New Zealand Hockey team which beat the first Australian team to tour New Zealand.  A keen tennis player, Johns helped establish the Ngatira Tennis Club in Epsom during the 1920s and the New Zealand Tennis Umpires Association in 1935.  He served on the Mt Eden Borough Council for 21 years and was its Mayor from 1950-1959.28 Johns was also a Justice of the Peace and the recipient of a Queens Service Order in 1976.29

Johns died in Tauranga in March 1985 aged 91 years. He was married twice and had three children.30


Mt Eden mayor Clive Johns (centre) unveils a plaque on the summit of Mount Eden commemorating the purchase of the original site of Auckland, 1956.
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 580-3965.

Katherine Pawley, Special Collections

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  1. Births, deaths and marriages online, Department of Internal Affairs.
  2. Calendar, Auckland University College, University of New Zealand, Auckland, 1915, p.183; 1916, p.162.
  3. New Zealand Herald, 30 June 1917, p.9. All New Zealand newspapers accessed via Papers Past.
  4. ‘Johns, Alton Clive - WW1 20921 – Army’, R18053569, Archives New Zealand, Wellington.
  5. Clive Johns to sister Ada McAdam, 31 December 1916, Letters from Clive Johns to his family while on active service, MS Papers 11253-33, Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL), Wellington.
  6. Ibid.; Clive Johns diary, 1916, Brent Mackrell papers, MS-2003-107, box 23, Auckland War Memorial Museum.
  7. Clive Johns to Victor Johns, 16 January 1917, MS Papers 11253-33, ATL.
  8. ‘Johns, Alton Clive - WW1 20921 – Army’.
  9. W.H, Cunningham, C.A.L, Treadwell, and J.S. Hanna, The Wellington Regiment (NZEF), 1914-1919, Wellington, 1928, p.145.
  10. 6 June 1917, Clive Johns diary 1917, Clive Johns diaries, MSX-8898, Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL), Wellington.
  11. 7 June 1917, Clive Johns diary 1917, MSX-8898, ATL.
  12. Ibid.; Cunningham, Treadwell and Hanna, pp.163-164.
  13. Clive Johns to Ada McAdam, 11 June 1917, MS Papers 11253-33, ATL.
  14. 27 June 1917, Clive Johns diary 1917, ATL; Clive Johns to Ada McAdam, 29 June 1917, MS Papers 11253-33, ATL. The Chaplain was Rev David Craig Herron.
  15. It is unclear when the Johns family in New Zealand were notified that Clive had been killed in action but his military record notes that a cable was sent from London on 18 June 1917 stating ‘Killed in action, June 7th 1917’. His name appeared on the Roll of Honour in the New Zealand Herald on 21 June, and the paper published a short biography on 30 June. The family received Clive’s cable saying he was alive on Friday 29 June and an official correction from the Defence Department on Monday 2 July. The New Zealand Herald and the Pukekohe and Waiuku Times published corrections on 3 July. The information was also recorded and then corrected in the University’s Roll of Honour.
  16. William Johns to parents, 27 June 1917, Letters of William H Johns to his family while serving in World War One, MS Papers 11253-32, Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL), Wellington.
  17. William Johns to parents, 7 August 1917, MS Papers 11253-32, ATL.
  18. ‘Johns, Alton Clive - WW1 20921 – Army’; ‘Johns, William Henwood - WW1 13/368 – Army’, R18053615, Archives New Zealand, Wellington.
  19. Clive Johns to Ada McAdam, 3 November 1917, MS Papers 11253-33, ATL.
  20. Ibid.; Clive Johns to Ada McAdam, 17 November 1917, MS Papers 11253-33, ATL.
  21. Ibid.
  22. Clive Johns to Ada McAdam, 26 November 1917, MS Papers 11253-33, ATL.
  23. ‘Johns, Alton Clive - WW1 20921 – Army’.
  24. Ibid.
  25. Various diary entries, Clive Johns diary 1918, MSX-8898, Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL), Wellington.
  26. ‘Johns, Alton Clive - WW1 20921 – Army’; 1 October 1918, Clive Johns diary 1918, ATL.
  27. Johns Ltd records, MSS & Archives A-26, Special Collections, University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services.
  28. New Zealand Herald, 23 March 1985, p.14.
  29. Supplement to the London Gazette, 31st December 1976, p.42.
  30. Births, deaths and marriages online, Department of Internal Affairs.