This week we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston: scholar, writer, traveller and teacher
Tutor
to China's Last Emperor
Sir
Reginald Fleming Johnston KCMG, CBE (13 Oct 1874- 6 March 1938) was
born in Edinburgh exactly one hundred and thirty-eight years ago this week.
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| Reginald Fleming Johnston, pictured with Empress Wan Rong and his fellow tutor, Isabel Ingram, in the Forbidden City (c) Wikimedia Commons |
Johnston
spent much of his life away from Scotland, after entering the
colonial service in 1898 and being sent initially to Hong Kong.
In
1919, he was appointed tutor to China’s non-sovereign Manchu
emperor, Pu Yi, who was then 13 years old. Pu Yi had abdicated in 1912,
becoming 'The Last Emperor'. At the time, Johnston and his colleague,
Isabel Ingram, were the only foreigners in history to be allowed
inside the inner court of Qing Dynasty. Johnston loved China and
continued to serve there as a diplomat after Pu Yi was expelled from
the Forbidden City in 1924.
On
his return to Britain, Johnston was appointed Professor of Chinese at
the School of Oriental Studies in London. He wrote Twilight
in the Forbidden City (1934),
an account of his time in China and of his relationship with his
young charge. In 1987, Johnston’s memoirs, were used as a source
for Bertolucci’s sumptuous multi-Oscar winning film, The
Last Emperor, which
marks its 25th anniversary this year.
In the film, Johnston was played by Peter O'Toole. You can see a clip
from the film, when Johnston meets Pu Yi for the first time, at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vtyImga6iZbk
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| Poster for the film, The Last Emperor (1987) |
Sir
Reginald Fleming Johnston died on the 6th March 1938 and was cremated
two days later at Warriston Crematorium in Edinburgh. His ashes were
scattered on his home island of Eilean Righ.
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| The Crematorium Register entry for Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston can be found on the Deceased Online database |
After
leaving China, Johnston had remained in touch with Pu Yi, and last
visited him at Manchukuo in 1935. Pu Yi died in Peking, now part of
the People's Republic of China, on 17 October 1967. He was 61 years
old.
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