Born on 25 April 1905 he was educated at Brighton College and the Middlesex Hospital, qualifying with the Conjoint diploma in 1927. He was appointed anaesthetist at the Middlesex Hospital, and in 1938 took the diploma in anaesthetics. In the second world war he served in the RAMC in the Central Mediterranean Force, and in 1944 was mentioned in dispatches. In 1948 he became an original fellow of the newly formed Faculty of Anaesthetists and became the second Dean of the Faculty. He was largely instrumental in interesting the pharmaceutical industry in the work and potential of the Faculty and obtained large benefactions as a result, in particular the Professorship of Anaesthesia, supported by the British Oxygen Company. He married Barbara Grace Scriven in 1933 by whom he had a daughter. Johnson died suddenly on Whit Monday 18 May 1959 at his country home in Sussex. He was very interested in sport, particularly cricket, and in wild life and was an accomplished gardener and smallholder.