Lieut Nelson Johnstone, 2/2nd Midland Brigade Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C., stationed at Kings Lynn, died suddenly at Cambridge while undergoing an operation at a military hospital.

An Irishman aged 41, he had at the time of the 1901 Census been living with his first wife Frances, whom he married in Ireland in 1898, and baby daughter Kathleen at 76 Wellington Street, Luton, while he was a physician and surgeon involved with the Luton Medical Institute in Waller Street.

The family later moved to London, and Dr Johnstone was one of the doctors who attended men shot during the siege of Sidney Street in London's East End in January 1911. In doing so he was himself wounded in the head.

His wife had died in 1909 and he returned to Luton after recovering from his siege wounds. Later in 1911 he married his second wife, Edith (nee Hawkes) and set up a private medical practice in Luton at 6 Union Street.

An inquest at Cambridge was told that Lieut Johnstone had been invalided to the 1st Eastern General Hospital at Cambridge on the day before his death. Two days previously he had begun to suffer from swelling of the tongue and the glands of his neck, and had breathing difficulties.

He died while under anaesthetic ["gas and oxygen"] about a minute after the start of an operation that was considered to be the only means of saving his life. The cause of death was given as heart failure due to ulceration of the mouth and cellulitis of the neck.

A jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, and a funeral with full military honours was held at Cambridge Borough Cemetery on Monday, December 13th.