About John Johnson

John de Monins Johnson (1882-1956) was born in Lincolnshire but spent most of his life in Oxford. He was educated at Magdalen College School and then at Exeter College, where he read Greats and then Arabic. After a short career in the Egyptian Civil Service, he became a papyrologist, discovering a Theocritus papyrus 900 years earlier than any previously known manuscript of the author. Although he subsequently co-edited a monograph on this papyrus1, his career as a papyrologist was cut short by the outbreak of the First World War. Unfit for military service, Johnson returned to Oxford and was employed by the Oxford University Press as Assistant Secretary to the Delegates of the Press. In 1925 he became Printer to the University of Oxford, a post which he held until his retirement in 1946.

During the Second World War, Johnson kept the Press running and was responsible for the security of the surrounding area, living at the Press and often rising at 4 am to work on his collection of printed ephemera – his only recreation. In Egypt Johnson had wondered what we were doing to preserve our immediate paper heritage. In Oxford he formed his monumental collection, which he named the Constance Meade Collection of Ephemeral Printing. After his retirement, he continued to work on it, until his death in 1956. He is buried in Headington Cemetery.

Johnson was awarded an Honorary DLitt in 1928 on his completion of the printing of the Oxford English Dictionary and was made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College in 1936. He was appointed CBE in 1945 for special services during the war.

The Collection was renamed as the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera and was transferred to the Bodleian in 1968.

1 A S Hunt and J de M Johnson, eds., Two Theocritus Papyri, London, Egypt Exploration Society, 1930.


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