author

Arthur Johnston

1778–1824

A British Army officer in Ceylon, he left behind a vivid firsthand account of the 1804 expedition to Kandy. His writing offers a close-up view of colonial warfare, military hardship, and the landscape of early nineteenth-century Sri Lanka.

1 Audiobook

Narrative of the Operations of a Detachment in an Expedition to Candy, in the Island of Ceylon, in the Year 1804 With Some Observations on the Previous Campaign, and on the Nature of Candian Warfare, etc., etc., etc.

Narrative of the Operations of a Detachment in an Expedition to Candy, in the Island of Ceylon, in the Year 1804 With Some Observations on the Previous Campaign, and on the Nature of Candian Warfare, etc., etc., etc.

by Arthur Johnston

About the author

Arthur Johnston (1778–1824) was an Irish-born British Army officer associated with Clare in County Tyrone. He served with the 19th Regiment of Foot, the 2nd Ceylon Battalion, and later the Royal Corsican Rangers, and he also held a post at the Royal Military College at Farnham.

He is best remembered as the author of Narrative of the Operations of a Detachment in an Expedition to Candy, in the Island of Ceylon, in the Year 1804. Drawn from his own experience, the book gives a firsthand account of the British campaign in Kandy and reflects both the practical detail of a soldier's memoir and the viewpoint of the colonial world in which it was written.

Johnston died in 1824. Although little biographical detail is widely recorded, his surviving narrative has kept his name in print as a witness to one of the most difficult British military expeditions in Ceylon.