George Johnston was born in Cairns, where his father was manager of the Bank of New South Wales. He spent his boyhood in North Queensland, an ideal place for a boy to acquire a love of the sea. At the age of ten George built his first dinghy and sailed it on Cairns Harbour; as a teenager he ventured further out to sea making several trips to the Barrier Reef with fishermen and, on occasions, joining the crew of luggers diving for trochus shell or just cruising amongst the islands in uncharted waters of Torres Strait. In his later life in Sydney he was a well-known ocean racing yachtsman, being one of the crew of Morna in several Sydney to Hobart yacht races.

When his parents came to Sydney to live, George attended the North Sydney Boys’ High School in 1930 for his last year at school. He then began his medical course at the University of Sydney in 1931. After graduating with second-class honours, he served as a resident medical officer at Sydney Hospital in 1937 and 1938 and at the Women’s Hospital in 1939. In 1940 he was appointed a fellow in medicine and in 1941 resident pathologist at Prince Henry Hospital. He continued his interest in pathology when he served with the Australian Army Medical Corps from 1942 to 1946 with the rank of major in a pathology unit in Australia and in Borneo.

On demobilisation early in 1946, he was appointed bacteriologist in the Kanematsu Memorial Institute at Sydney Hospital. He became assistant director and was largely responsible for the high standard of the pathological services of Sydney Hospital. As a clinical pathologist in immediate charge of the bacteriology and haematology departments, he always maintained a close working relationship with the clinicians in the wards.

In 1954 he studied overseas in the London Postgraduate Medical School and at Harvard. On his return he strove to raise the status of the salaried pathologist in a hospital staffed almost entirely with honorary physicians and surgeons. He believed the Hospital board should grant specialist pathologists limited rights of private consultant practice. When the board disagreed with him, he resigned from his position in order to practice pathology in private. He died suddenly a fortnight before he was due to leave for his new venture.

George’s friendly nature, his willingness to help anyone less experienced than himself and his firm determination to fight for his convictions earned him the respect of all members of the medical profession with whom he came in contact. He enjoyed his work as a clinical pathologist; in his leisure time he also enjoyed the comradeship of those who go down to the sea to sail boats. His eyes would really sparkle and he would give a soft chuckle when he saw an opportunity to tell, in his gentle voice, his tales of adventure at sea. These were many, but fortunately George had many true friends who enjoyed his stories as much as he enjoyed telling them.

George married Loelene Lancaster; they had two children, Janette, now a medical practitioner and Jeffrey, a consultant engineer and company director.