Lieutenant-Colonel M.P. Johnston
11th (Ontario) Tank Regiment

Well Murray, you know you have my heartfelt congratulations on your promotion, and we all feel that with you in Command, and Bob as 2 i/c, that you will make a team second to none. I again tell you how good I feel, when I see any of my old boys receiving promotions. I am sure it does me just as much good, as it does them.

(Col. Bob Smith to Johnston and Schell, 21 Jan 1943)

Born in Owen Sound, Ontario on 3 March 1908, Murray Pentland Johnston, was a reserve army officer with the Ontario Regiment since 1928 and an Oshawa menswear clothier. He was one of a dozen officers to attend tank tactics training in England in late 1940. Overseas he later served as squadron commander with the 9th Armoured Regiment (British Columbia Dragoon) before attached service with the British Army in North Africa. After transferring back to his own regiment, Johnston succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel G.Y. Masson of the Ontario Tanks in November 1942 with another original militia officer, Major Bob Schell, as his new second-in-command.

Johnston led the regiment into its first actions with the 1st Army Tank Brigade following the invasions of Sicily and Italy in summer 1943. Following a knee injury from a jeep accident in late September, Johnston was replaced by Schell. Although expected to be disabled for only three weeks, he was soon evacuated out of the Italian theatre. Schell remained in command of the Ontario Tanks until the end of the year. “Please extend my sincere thanks to all Officers, N.C.O.’s, and men for the loyal support they gave me during my tenure of command,” Johnston expressed to the new CO. “Good luck to you all!”

After a lengthy recovery, he was posted to Canadian Military Headquarters in London in September 1944 and then returned to National Defence headquarters in Ottawa as director of military armour. In the postwar reserve army, Johnston resumed command of the Ontario Regiment from 1946 to 1948. In honour of this regimental service, the logo for his downtown Oshawa menswear store, Murray Johnston Limited, depicted a jousting tank.

He died in Oshawa on 13 April 1985.