In November 1905 at age 18, Lukin Johnston travelled alone aboard the CPR vessel Lake Manitoba from Liverpool to Montreal with just 10 sovereign coins.
21 Facts About Lukin Johnston
1.
2.
Lukin Johnston worked on farms near Burford, Ontario and in the Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan before moving to the Kootenays region of British Columbia.
3.
In March 1909, with no journalism experience, Lukin Johnston was hired as a reporter by The Province newspaper in Vancouver, British Columbia.
4.
Lukin Johnston spent his savings of $20 to do research on real estate for his first article.
5.
Lukin Johnston shared an apartment with fellow reporters Hugh Savage and Kenneth Meyers.
6.
Lukin Johnston's editorializing against a government subsidy to improve public roads to Lake Cowichan had aroused the ire of some wealthy landowners and businessmen who stood to gain by improved access.
7.
In November 1915, Lukin Johnston enlisted with the 88th Battalion, CEF of the Canadian Expeditionary Force along with 1,150 Victorians.
8.
Lukin Johnston was honourably discharged with the rank of Major.
9.
Lukin Johnston, had enlisted at Duncan into the 30th Battalion, was promoted to captain, and was killed in battles in France.
10.
In 1919, Lukin Johnston returned to The Province newspaper to work at the 'telegraph' desk.
11.
Lukin Johnston was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
12.
In July 1923, after initially being denied access to American President Warren G Harding's trip to Alaska, Johnston was smuggled on board the ship in Portland, Oregon by American journalists.
13.
Lukin Johnston was a friend and coworker of several notable journalists, including Bruce Hutchison.
14.
Lukin Johnston expanded his coverage of politics to international affairs and wrote about his journeys throughout British Columbia's rural areas.
15.
In 1931, Lukin Johnston met with Ernst Hanfstaengl, head of the Foreign Press section of the Propaganda Ministry of the Weimar Republic.
16.
Lukin Johnston reunited with Robert Keyserlingk, a friend from Vancouver who was now working at the United Press in Zurich and had scored an exclusive interview with Adolf Hitler.
17.
En route to the 1932 Lausanne Disarmament Conference, Lukin Johnston used Keyserlingk to arrange and translate an interview with His Highness Victor Salvator Prince Isenburg, special representative of the Czech Skoda munition works.
18.
On November 15,1933, Lukin Johnston became the first Canadian newspaperman to be granted an interview with Hitler.
19.
Lukin Johnston told other foreign correspondents that while exiting from the interview, Lukin Johnston encountered Goering who aggressively leaned towards him and said in English, 'You're damned lucky to get out.
20.
Lukin Johnston boarded the ferry boat Prague at the Hook of Holland to travel to Harwich, England.
21.
Lukin Johnston's disappearance was featured in a number of newspapers, generating 700 letters from readers to Johnston's widow.