| Johnson | Frank | | Major | Born in Norfolk and was educated at King's Lynn Gram. School; came out to SA in 1882, and for two years was a member of the Cape Civil Service. In 1884 he led the 2nd Mounted Rifles under Colonel (now General) Sir Frederick Carrington, and took in the Warren Expedition to Bechuanaland, at the close of which he joined the Bechuanaland Border Police, in which corps he met his future partners, Maurice Heany and H J Borrow. Drawn north by the reports of wealth in the interior, he left the BBP early in 1886, and at Cape Town formed a small syndicate to obtain concessions in the Protectorate and in Lobengula's country. He was successful in getting a big concession in Khama's territory, which led to the foundation of the Bechuanaland Exploration Company. He then went to Lobengula's kraal, where he was one of the first white men who dared to ask the sable chief for a mineral concession. In 1889 Mr Rhodes obtained his charter, and in the following year set about the effective occupation of Mashonaland, making, on somewhat original lines, a contract with Frank Johnson to carry out the occupation, in which the latter was assisted by two troops of BSA Police, F C Selous acting as Intelligence Officer and Frank Johnson getting the Colonial rank of Major—in other words he was practically, and came to be known as, the 'Contractor' for Mashonaland. The chief commander of the whole expedition was Colonel Pennefather. After the occupation of Mashonaland he settled down in partnership with Heany and Borrow, and acquired a number of mining and landed interests, which ultimately were merged into the United Rhodesia, Ltd Captain Borrow was killed at Shangani in the first Matabele War, and Major Heany afterwards associated himself with the Partridge and Jarvis group. From 1890 Major Johnson made his headquarters at Cape Town, where he held a commission and took an active interest in the Cape Volunteer Forces. In 1896 he was one of the two Colonial officers chosen by the Cape Govt, as members of the Commission appointed by Parliament to inquire into the defences and forces of Cape Colony, the other members being Imperial officers. The scheme of defence finally recommended by the Commission was chiefly based on that of Canada. At the end of 1896, at the outbreak of native troubles in Bechuanaland, Major Johnson was appointed Staff Officer of the Colonial Forces at the headquarters in Cape Town, and when an expedition was finally dispatched to the Langeberg early in the ensuing year, under Colonel Dalgety, of the Cape Mounted Rifles, Major Johnson was appointed Chief Staff Officer. At the close of the expedition he was specially thanked by the Cape Government for his services. For the next three years he resided with his family in Salisbury. Rhodesia, as Managing Director of the Mashonaland Consolidated, Limited. In 1900 he returned to England, and settled down in London as a Rhodesian financier and company director. He is now Chairman of the Rhodesia Consolidated, Ltd, and the Injoka (Rhodesia) Tobacco Company, Ltd, and is on the Boards of the Golden Valley (Mashonaland) Mines, Ltd, the Mashonaland Consolidated, the Rhodesia Cold Storage Company, Ltd, and the Rhodesia Mining and Finance Company, Ltd He also took a leading part in the formation of the Rhodesian Landowners' Association. He is a good game shot, an habitual motorist, and is married. | Unknown |
