George Johnston (Royal Marines officer)

Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston (19 March 1764 – 5 January 1823) was a Royal Marines officer and colonial administrator who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales from 1794 to 1795 and again from 1806 to 1808. After serving in the American War of Independence, he served in the East Indies theatre of the French Revolutionary Wars before volunteering to accompany the First Fleet which established the colony of New South Wales in 1788.

In New South Wales, Johnston served as an adjutant to Governor Arthur Phillip before joining the New South Wales Corps in September 1792, and played a key role in suppressing the Castle Hill convict rebellion in 1804. He led his troops in deposing Governor William Bligh in the Rum Rebellion in 1808, which led to Johnston to being court-martialled and cashiered from the military. In his later life, he returned to New South Wales as a private citizen, raising a family in the colony and establishing a successful farm around Annandale in Sydney.