Edward Johnston, CBE (11 February 1872 – 26 November 1944) was a British craftsman who is regarded, with Rudolf Koch, as the father of modern calligraphy, in the particular form of the broad-edged pen as a writing tool.

Lethaby advised him to study manuscripts at the British Museum, which encouraged Johnston to make his letters using a broad edged pen.

He has also been credited for reviving the art of modern penmanship and lettering single-handedly through his books and teachings.

Johnston also devised the simply crafted round calligraphic handwriting style, written with a broad pen, known today as the foundational hand (what Johnston originally called a slanted pen hand, which was developed from Roman and half-uncial forms).

He influenced a generation of British typographers and calligraphers, including Graily Hewitt, Irene Wellington, Harold Curwen and Stanley Morison, Alfred Fairbank, Florence Kingsford Cockerell, Eric Gill and Percy Delf Smith.

Not all his students were happy with his decision to create a sans-serif design for the Underground, in a style thought of as modernist and industrial.

His pupil Graily Hewitt privately wrote to a friend:In Johnston I have lost confidence.

Despite all he did for us...he has undone too much by forsaking his standard of the Roman alphabet, giving the world, without safeguard or explanation, his block letters which disfigure our modern life.

Compared to both signage and sculpture, the memorial is huge wood type mounted on the wall of the underground station.