Colonial Despatches

Richard Johns was a Brevet Major in the Royal Marines. He is memorialized in the enclosures included in this document for the purpose of securing a widow’s pension for his wife. While he served honourably and faithfully in many parts of the globe for more than twenty-five years, Johns died prematurely, at the age of forty-seven, by contracting an epidemic fever which prevailed in the Mediterranean. His active duty on the HMS Ganges ended in his dissolution on November 6, 1851.

Included in these enclosures is an 1845 letter from the Secretary of the War Office thanking Johns for his proposed changes to the 41st clause of the Mutiny Act.

Biographical information for this person is not yet complete.