Alexander Keith Johnston FRSE FRGS FGS FEGS LLD (died 9 July 1871) was a Scottish geographer and cartographer. Biography He was born at Kirkhill near Penicuik, south of Edinburgh. He was the son of Andrew Johnston and Isabel Keith. His brother was Thomas Brumby Johnston FRSE. After an education at the High School and the University of Edinburgh he was apprenticed to the Edinburgh engraver and mapmaker, James Kirkwood and William Home Lizars. In 1826, he joined his brother William (who would become Sir William Johnston, Lord Provost of Edinburgh) in a printing and engraving business, forming the well-known cartographical firm of W. and A. K. Johnston with offices based at 4 St Andrew Square in Edinburgh's New Town (demolished 2016) and their printworks based at Edina Works, off Easter Road. The firm used the clan motto of "Ready Aye Ready" as their logo. Early hikes in the West Highlands had led Johnston to despair at the accuracy of maps, and inspired a desire to rectify this. The rest of Johnston's life was devoted to geography, his later years to its educational aspects especially. His services were recognised by the leading scientific societies of Europe and America. Following his publication of The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial and Political Geography in 1843, Johnston was appointed Geographer Royal. In October 1849, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Robert Chambers. In 1862 he was a founding member of the Meteorological Society of Scotland. He was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1865. His Edinburgh address in later years was 16 Grosvenor Crescent in the affluent West End. He died at Ben Rhydding, Yorkshire, in 1871. He is buried in the north-west section of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh facing the west path. Works Johnston combined cartography with a painstaking and scholarly approach to map production. He went on to establish a reputation for scope and accuracy. Thematic atlases became the hallmark of the company he had founded and W & A K Johnston were appointed engravers to King William IV in 1834. In 1835 he constructed the first English language physical globe of the world incorporating its geology, hydrography and meteorology. In 1843 Johnston published The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial and Political Geography. Johnston was the first to bring the study of physical geography into competent notice in England. His attention had been called