The Johnson family lived in the village of Bickleigh in Devon during and after the war, before moving to Ixworth in Suffolk in the early 1950s.
Below is a photograph taken at Bickleigh in the post-war years; with the following description of the photo written by AAJ:
“This is a photograph of a Suffolk Regiment CCO? party we held at our house at Bickleigh. Wendy and Tessa (AAJ’s eldest daughters) are sitting in the centre of the ….(illegible) behind the very small children. Phyl (Phyllis Johnson, AAJ’s wife) must have been attending to Marilla (AAJ’s youngest daughter) I suppose. I should like this backsometime please.”Wendy (Bird) is in front of the woman in the dark dress; Tessa (Somerville) is next to her, in front of the woman in the flowery dress. AAJ is at the top right corner of this photograph.
AAJ rarely, if ever, spoke of the war to members of his family, but many decades later he did write a couple of articles in the local village newsletter. The following 4-page article (1st page shown here) was published in “The Ixworth Magazine”, Issue No 9, 1st May 1980:
Click below to see the full article at higher resolution
A.A. Johnson died on 24th January 1981. The following obituary was published in The Ixworth Magazine, Issue 14, on 1st July 1981.
A number of books have been written over the years about the FEPOWs experience; one which is particularly relevant to A.A.Johnson and mentions his role is White Coolie by Ronald Hastain, who also wrote the introduction to the booklet which accompanied the Sladmore Exhibition (see Exhibitions tab):
Front coverBack cover
