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Biography
Charles Johnston (1867–1931) was an Irish writer, journalist, theosophist and Sanskrit scholar.
Biography
He was born on 17 February 1867 in the small village of Ballykilbeg (in Downpatrick), County Down, Northern Ireland. His father, William Johnston (1829–1902), was an Irish politician, a Member of Parliament from South Belfast, and a member of the Orange Order.
Charles Johnston studied Oriental Studies, and learned Sanskrit, Russian and German. Among his classmates were William Butler Yeats and George William Russell, with whom he shared an interest in the occult.
Later, he worked as a journalist. In 1884, he read Alfred Percy Sinnett's work The Occult World and founded, together with Yeats and Russell on 16 June 1885, the Hermetic Society in Dublin. He was responsible for introducing W. B. Yeats to Madame Blavatsky in spring 1887.
After 1885 he also joined the Theosophical Society, and co-founded in April/June 1886 the Theosophical Lodge in Dublin. (Later when the Theosophical Society split in 1895, he followed the direction of William Quan Judge and was a member of the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA).)
On 14 October 1888 he married Vera Vladimirovna de Zhelihovsky (1864-1923) the niece of Helena Blavatsky.
He also entered the Indian Civil Service the same year, and later served in the British Bengal Service.
He translated several works from Sanskrit and Russian. As an author, he devoted himself primarily to philosophical and theosophical topics.
He was president of the Irish Literary Society.