Conway Campbell-Johnston (1859 – 1915), 56, was a rancher from the area around Los Angeles, (now Pasadena) California. He was traveling aboard Lusitania with his wife Ida. They were both British subjects. Conway was his way to join the military service for England. On board the Lusitania, their ticket number was 46147 and they stayed in cabin B-43. Both Conway and Ida were lost when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk on 7 May 1915. Ida’s body was recovered, Conway’s was not.
Family
Conway was one of nine or ten sons of Alexander Robert Johnston (later Campbell-Johnston) and Frances-Ellen Palliser. Alexander was the acting administrator of Hong Kong from June 1842 to December 1842. The Campbell-Johnstons were visiting Southern California in 1883 and bought 2,000 acres of land of the historic Rancho San Rafael from Prudent Beaudry, who was mayor of Los Angeles from 1874 to 1876.
The Campbell-Johnsons renamed their land the San Rafael Ranch and developed it to agricultural use. Alexander and Frances-Ellen returned to England, giving over management of the ranch to three of their ten sons, Augustine, Conway, and Alexander Napier.
Alexander and Frances-Ellen Campbell-Johnson returned to the San Rafael Ranch in early 1888, where Alexander died on 21 January. In 1889, Frances-Ellen commissioned the “Mission of the Church of the Angels” in Alexander’s memory. Alexander Napier died in 1907. Conway’s will requested that he be buried in the vault in the Church of the Angels or in England, but his body was not recovered from the Lusitania sinking. Near the entrance of the church is the dinner bell that was used at the San Rafael Ranch from 1890 up until Augustine’s death in 1920, when ranch operations ceased.
The church has a crypt for the Campbell-Johnston family, but as land zoning laws in Pasadena prohibit burials, the crypt is thought to stand empty.
As the San Rafael Ranch was across the arroyo from Pasadena proper, the ranch was not developed until the 1940s, when the city expanded outward.
Links of interest
Church of the Angels – History
Church of the Angels – Bob Taylor Properties
Goodbye Church of the Angels – Pasadena Daily Photo
Contributors
Lee Nichols
Zachary Schwarz
References
Burchard, Petrea. “Goodbye Church of the Angels.” Pasadena Daily Photo. Web. 6 August 2011. <http://pasadenadailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/07/goodbye-church-of-angels.html>.
“Church of the Angels.” Bob Taylor Properties. Web. 6 August 2011. <http://www.bob-taylor.com/angels.htm>.
“The Church’s History.” Church of the Angels. Web. 6 August 2011. <http://www.coa-pasadena.org/church-history/>.
“San Rafael Branch and Neighborhood Profile.” City of Pasadena. Web. 6 August 2011. <http://cityofpasadena.net/library/in_around_about_pasadena/neighborhoods/san_rafael/>.
“Alexander Robert Johnston.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 July 2004. Web. 6 August 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Robert_Johnston>.
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