Born in
Bombay, India, he was a descendant of the
Duke of Wellington,[3] he was called Arthur.[4] Johnson moved in
Upper Canada in 1835, first settling in
Port Maitland, Ontario, then to
Toronto by 1848. He attended the
Diocesan Theological Institute in
Cobourg, Ontario and became a clergyman. He was a curate to Archdeacon A. N. Bethune at Cobourg. However, his tractarian tendencies made him unpopular and he was made rector of St.Philip's at Etobicoke, a remote village across the river from Weston. There, he established a school in 1865 that was to become
Trinity College School in
Weston,
Ontario, where
William Osler became a student.[5] Johnson became the major early influence for Osler at this time,[6][7] along with his friend
James Bovell.[8] A keen collector of both animal and vegetal specimens, Johnson was schoolmaster and rector of St. Philip's Church, Weston.[9] Johnson died in
Toronto in 1880. A collection of his microscopic and field sketches are conserved at the
Osler Library of the History of Medicine,
McGill University.[10]
References
^Clelia Pighetti (1984). Scienza e colonialismo nel Canada ottocentesco. L.S. Olschki, p. 261
^News Publishing House, 1926. Queen's Quarterly, Volume 33. p. 2
^Shenrone Enterprises (1999). Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of York, Ontario: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Many of the Early Settled Families. Volume 1. p. 188
Keith Dalton, Frederick (1965). A Biography of the Reverend William Arthur Johnson (1816-1880), Clergyman, Artist, Architect, Scientist, Teacher. F.K. Dalton