Rev. William Arthur Johnson (1816–1880) was an amateur biologist,[1] naturalist, microscopist, botanist, and ordained clergyman who lived in Canada.[2]
Born in Bombay, India, he was a descendant of the Duke of Wellington,[3] he was called Arthur.[4] Johnson moved in Upper Canada in 1835, first settling in Port Maitland, Ontario, then to Toronto by 1848. He attended the Diocesan Theological Institute in Cobourg, Ontario and became a clergyman. He was a curate to Archdeacon A. N. Bethune at Cobourg. However, his tractarian tendencies made him unpopular and he was made rector of St.Philip's at Etobicoke, a remote village across the river from Weston. There, he established a school in 1865 that was to become Trinity College School in Weston, Ontario, where William Osler became a student.[5] Johnson became the major early influence for Osler at this time,[6][7] along with his friend James Bovell.[8] A keen collector of both animal and vegetal specimens, Johnson was schoolmaster and rector of St. Philip's Church, Weston.[9] Johnson died in Toronto in 1880. A collection of his microscopic and field sketches are conserved at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University.[10]