Brian Alexander Johnston CBE MC (24 June 1912 – 5 January 1994), nicknamed Johnners, was a British cricket commentator, author, and television presenter.

Brian Alexander Johnston was born on Monday, 24 June 1912 at the Old Rectory, Little Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the youngest of four children (elder siblings were Anne, Michael and Christopher).

[2] On 27 August 1922, his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Evelyn Johnston, DSO, MC, who managed the family coffee business, drowned at Widemouth Sands near Bude, Cornwall at the age of 44.

After several months' convalescence he returned to the City office in October but resigned the following year to join the army on the outbreak of the Second World War.

He remained stationed in the United Kingdom until the invasion of Europe in the summer of 1944, when his battalion landed at Arromanches on the Normandy coast some three weeks after D Day.

[7] In the winter of 1944 and early spring of 1945, Johnston and his armoured division were in the thick of the allied advance, crossing the Rhine and fighting their way up to Bremen and Hamburg.

In some he stayed alone in the Chamber of Horrors, rode a circus horse, lay under a passing train, was hauled out of the sea by a helicopter and was attacked by a police dog.

He was also part of the radio commentating team for major state occasions such as the funeral of King George VI in 1952, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the Sovereign's annual birthday parade, the annual El Alamein reunion and in due course the royal weddings of Princess Margaret, Princess Anne and the Prince of Wales.

In that year he also met and mentored his future TMS colleague the late Christopher Martin-Jenkins, who sought his advice about how to become a cricket commentator while still at school.

However, he continued to appear in a freelance capacity as a member of the team for the radio broadcasts, Test Match Special (TMS) for the next 22 years.

Johnston was responsible for a number of the TMS traditions, including the creation, often using the so-called Oxford "-er", of the nicknames of fellow commentators (for example, Jonathan Agnew is still known as "Aggers", Henry Blofeld as "Blowers", and the late Bill Frindall ("the Bearded Wonder") as "Bearders").

This is now considered apocryphal; Johnston claimed not to have noticed saying anything odd during the match, and that he was only alerted to his gaffe by a letter from "a lady" named "Miss Mainpiece".

[citation needed] Johnston was a great fan of the British Music Hall and revelled in its often mildly risqué "schoolboy humour".

An Evening with Johnners, a one-man show that he performed towards the end of his life, was recorded and released, and reached number 46 on the UK Albums Chart in March 1994, two months after his death.

On the morning of 2 December 1993, whilst in a taxi going to Paddington station en route to Bristol where he was due to fill a speaking engagement, he suffered a massive heart attack.

Brian Johnston died on 5 January 1994, at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers in Marylebone, London, having been admitted the previous day.

[24] The Daily Telegraph described him as "the greatest natural broadcaster of them all", and British Prime Minister and cricket fan John Major said that "Summers simply won't be the same without him".

The trust's income is boosted significantly from the proceeds of the annual Johnners Club Dinner in the Long Room at Lord's Cricket Ground, member subscriptions, and general donations.