September 22, 1892-January 12, 1974.
Geraldine Johnston was a teacher, community worker and a prolific poet whose writings earned her much admiration and respect.
She wrote four books of poetry, contributed to two international anthologies and was listed in the 1970-1971 edition of International Who’s Who in Poetry.
Johnston (nee Geraldine Marion Bassett) was born in Southampton, and moved to Paget when she was eight years of age. The second eldest of four daughters born to James and Maria Bassett, she attended Paget Glebe School, where she was taught by the legendary headmistress Adele Tucker.
Her father promised Johnston and a sister a high school education at The Berkeley Institute, but changed his mind at the last minute, Johnston told the Mid-Ocean News in a 1969 interview.
She gave no reason for her father’s change of heart, but the disappointment did not deter her. She completed primary school at the age of 12 and then worked as a monitress, or assistant teacher, at Paget Glebe. She remained at Paget Glebe for several years before moving overseas.
At some point, she took an examination administered by the Board of Education, which qualified her to teach in the Bermuda school system.
She returned to Bermuda when Adele Tucker offered her teaching position. She joined Paget Glebe in 1913 and remained there for more than 30 years. She took a seven-year break from teaching after marrying John Johnston, a mason, because married women were not allowed to teach. She resumed her teaching career once the law against married female teachers was changed. By then she was the mother of two children, Bernard and Jean.
Johnston was an avid reader all her life. While she wrote her first poem when she was eight-years-old, teaching seemed to have been the creative spark for her writings as an adult. She composed poems for her students on the spot in her classroom. She began writing poems in her spare time and published her first book of poems in 1940. She also wrote short stories and school skits and plays.
Johnston kept a pad and pencils close at hand so she could jot down verses as they came to her. She set high standards for herself, and was constantly reworking her poems, “I read and re-read the poem,” she told the Mid-Ocean News “and I am always changing a word, sometimes even a complete line.”
Her poems regularly appeared in the Bermuda Recorder and later Fame magazine. Some were published in anthologies in Barbados and Italy. She was a perennial winner of Bermuda Recorder writing contests.
She wrote poems for children and adults and her work had a broad range of themes. Her books were Children’s Poems, Christmas Poems, A Book of Verse for Children and Trailing Vines.
Johnston, who was widowed around 1945, was a religious woman whose life was defined by her love of teaching and literature. She was a Sunday school teacher, She was a member of the Socratic Literary Club, which was founded in 1939, and was a founding member of the Bermuda Writers Club, which was established in 1957. In 1950, she founded the Waggon Wheel Club, an organization that gave financial assistance to students and seniors, and was in existence for more than 30 years.
Johnston retired from teaching in 1953 because of illness, but led an active life well into her retirement, tutoring adult students and non-English speakers. She spent her final years at Matilda Smith Williams seniors home in Devonshire.
She died on January 12, 1974 and the Bermuda Recorder paid tribute to her in an obituary and an editorial. In the same year, June Masters, the publisher of Fame magazine, compiled her poetry books into one volume The Life and Love of Geraldine Johnson.
In the foreword, then education minister Gloria McPhee wrote: “Mrs. Johnston recognised early that children are the only future of any people. In her role as teacher, by inculcating good habits in the youth of that day, she will have an everlasting effect on generations to come.
“Mrs. Johnston devoted her artistic talents to stories and poetry for children. Her bright spirit and sincere love came through in her poems which will continue to bring many happy moments to lovers of poetry, both young and old.
“Persons reading this book will get an insight into the fine character of an outstanding Bermudian. It will inspire the young and bring a sense of pride to those who knew her.”
In 2006, she was the recipient of a posthumous Founders Award from the Bermuda Arts Council.
