Thomas White (Australian politician)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
In office
21 June 1951 – 20 June 1956
Preceded byEric Harrison
Succeeded byEric Harrison
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Balaclava
In office
3 August 1929 – 21 June 1951
Preceded byWilliam Watt
Succeeded byPercy Joske
Personal details
Born(1888-04-26)26 April 1888
Colony of Victoria
Died13 October 1957(1957-10-13) (aged 69)
South Yarra, Victoria, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Political party
(1945–1951)
Spouse
Citizen Air Force (1940‍–‍1944)
Service years1902–1944
RankGroup captain
UnitMesopotamian Half Flight (1915)
Commands6th Battalion (1926‍–‍1931)
Battles/wars

Sir Thomas Walter White

Vera Deakin, a Red Cross worker and daughter of former Australian prime minister Alfred Deakin
, in 1920.

White began his parliamentary career in 1929 when he was elected to the

knighted
in 1952 and died in 1957.

Early life

Thomas Walter White was born on 26 April 1888 at Hotham,

North Melbourne. He was the son of Charles James White, a brass-finisher from England, and Emily Jane (née Jenkins) of Victoria.[1] Educated at Moreland State School, White joined the Citizen Forces as a trumpeter in 1902.[1][2] He served in artillery and engineering units for the next eight years.[3] In January 1911 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 5th Australian Regiment.[1][4] He was promoted to lieutenant in June 1912, and to captain in November 1913.[4]

First World War

In August 1914, two weeks after the outbreak of the First World War, White became one of the first four students to begin training at Point Cook as a pilot in the Australian Flying Corps (AFC).[1][5] He was later described by a biographer as "pugnacious and impatient for success, with a disdain for authority and a suspicion of elites".[6] White recalled flying in the school's Bristol Boxkite: "The senses took the place of the instruments. One's eyes and ears did duty as engine counters; the rush of the air in the face told whether the climb or glide was at the right angle."[7] In September he crashed the Boxkite into Point Cook's hangar while attempting to land in a crosswind; the dent he made was never repaired, and came to be recognised as part of the base's history.[8] The Australian Aero Club held its inaugural meeting at Point Cook in October; White was the club's first secretary.[9] The following month, he graduated from his flying course with his fellow students, who included the future Chief of the Air Staff, Richard Williams.[10]

Informal group photo
Captain White (second left) with Captain Henry Petre (far left) and Lieutenant George Merz (far right) of the Mesopotamian Half Flight at Basra, July 1915

In April 1915, White was appointed a captain in the

Shatt-el-Arab waterway and operating primitive Maurice Farman biplanes, the Half Flight assisted the Indian Army during the Mesopotamian campaign, conducting reconnaissance and sabotage missions against Turkish forces. The Farmans' top speed was only 50 miles per hour (80 km/h), and the desert wind could reach 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) – meaning the aircraft often made no headway or were simply blown backwards.[12]

White carried out several reconnaissance and bombing operations behind enemy lines.[1][13] On a mission in October 1915, he was forced to land owing to engine trouble and, rather than risk attempting repairs, taxied the aircraft some twenty-four kilometres (fifteen miles) past enemy troops while his observer, Captain Francis Yeats-Brown, kept watch with his rifle at the ready; the "Keystone Cops adventure", as historian Alan Stephens described it, culminated in the engine finally powering up and allowing White to take off and fly to the safety of the Australian base.[14][15] White himself touted the feat as "a taxi-ing record".[16] The following month, he undertook a search for Major General George Kemball, whose seaplane had gone missing between Kut and Aziziyeh; White located the missing plane near a large Arab encampment, and despite being fired on by the tribesmen was able to rescue the general and transport him to Aziziyeh.[17]

On 13 November 1915, White was captured on a mission to cut

Soviets in Odessa helped inform his subsequent anti-communism.[1] He then stowed away on a hospital ship bound for Bulgaria, and made his way to London in December.[1][20] White was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in June 1919.[21] That December, he was again mentioned in despatches, for "valuable services whilst in captivity".[22] He subsequently published an account of his wartime exploits as Guests of the Unspeakable.[1][23]

Early parliamentary career

While in London, White met

Toorak, despite the opposition of some of the Deakin family, including her brother-in-law Herbert Brookes.[1][24] White, whose sympathies tended towards small business, considered Brookes a "business bully", hiding behind "the protection of capital".[1] Also in 1920, White became managing director of his father's hardware company, C. J. White & Sons Pty Ltd.[1] He continued to serve in the Citizen Military Forces (CMF, the renamed Citizen Forces),[1][25] receiving promotion to major in July 1922, and commanding the 6th Battalion as a lieutenant colonel from March 1926 to March 1931.[4] In 1923 he was awarded the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers' Decoration, which recognised twenty years of service.[26][27] White enlisted as a special constable when Victorian police went on strike in November that year; he would later express support for groups such as the New Guard.[1][28]

White in the 1930s

White ran as a

James Fenton, 19,483 votes to 28,621.[1][29] In 1927, he failed to win the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Prahran. After the Nationalists declined to endorse him as a candidate for the Senate the following year, he won the seat of Balaclava at a by-election held on 3 August 1929.[1] He defeated his only opponent, Independent Nationalist Frederick Francis, with 28,642 votes to 16,063, to succeed retiring member William Watt.[30][31] White used his maiden speech in parliament to push for construction of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.[1] In the federal election held that October, he defeated the Labor contender, Donald Cameron, 31,700 votes to 22,445.[32] The United Australia Party (UAP) came to power in the December 1931 federal elections; White was returned by a margin of 30,294.[33][34]

In January 1933, White was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her wartime work, also pursued philanthropic activities, holding management or committee roles with the Royal Children's Hospital, the Victorian Society for Crippled Children and Adults, and the Red Cross.[24]

The October 1937 federal elections saw White returned by a margin of 20,954.[36] In July 1938, he represented Australia at an inter-governmental conference on Jewish refugees held at Évian, France, to discuss the growing numbers of Jewish emigrants seeking to leave Germany and occupied territories.[1] He sympathised with refugees he spoke to during the conference, but he hedged his offer of support: "As we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one by encouraging any scheme of large-scale foreign migration."[1][37] Australia agreed to accept 15,000 refugees over three years.[38] White's reaction to the Australian government's support for the Munich Agreement was to diarise: "I think we should hang our heads that we did not stand up to the bully of Europe ... It may yet mean peace but at what price?"[39] He called for stronger preparations at home in case of war, including the introduction of conscription.[1][40] On 8 November 1938, White resigned his portfolio, having discovered that Lyons had established an inner cabinet from which he was excluded; he was succeeded as Minister for Trade and Customs by John Perkins.[1][41] Lyons's response in parliament to White's resignation publicly highlighted the divisions in the UAP.[42] White stood for the UAP's leadership after Lyons's death the following year, but was eliminated early in the balloting; Robert Menzies narrowly defeated Billy Hughes in the final ballot.[1][43]

Second World War and later parliamentary career

Informal head-and-shoulders portrait of Thomas Walter White wearing a peaked cap
Wing Commander White (right) serving with the RAAF in Great Britain, March 1942

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, White transferred from the CMF to the

wing commander in November 1941, he proceeded to organise EATS graduates from Australia into their own distinct section under the RAF's No. 3 Personnel Reception Centre. He also facilitated improvements in accommodation, services, and postings for the Australians at Bournemouth.[49] In June 1942, he became RAAF Liaison Officer at RAF Flying Training Command, where he worked to improve procedures for commissioning and promoting Australian airmen.[50]

By May 1943, the Australian contingent at Bournemouth had outgrown its facilities and transferred to

RAAF Staff School, located at Mount Martha, Victoria, until his retirement as an honorary group captain;[1][55] he was medically discharged on 28 October 1944.[56][57] The same month, he attended the conference that resulted in the establishment of the Liberal Party, which succeeded the UAP; the new party was officially launched under Robert Menzies's leadership in August 1945.[1][58] In June 1946, now as the Liberal member for Balaclava, White unsuccessfully called for a royal commission into problems of command in the RAAF during the war.[59] He retained Balaclava by a majority of over 13,000 in the September 1946 federal election, defeating Labor's Maurice Ashkanasy.[54][60]

A boundary redistribution prior to the

Air Chief Marshal Sir) Donald Hardman.[68][69] White also sought to strengthen the Citizen Air Force, and personally ordered the establishment of No. 24 (City of Adelaide) Squadron at Mallala, South Australia.[70]

Later life and legacy

White in 1950

White secured his tenth election victory in Balaclava in the

South Yarra.[1] Survived by his wife and four daughters, he was accorded a state funeral at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, and interred at Point Lonsdale cemetery.[1][79]

The T. W. White Society, founded in 1982, sponsors an annual prize for thoracic research awarded through the Thoracic Society of Queensland.[80] White's daughters donated his papers to the National Library of Australia in 1997 and 1998.[81]

Notes

  1. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  2. The Prahran Telegraph. Prahran, Victoria. 7 January 1927. p. 5. Retrieved 4 June 2018 – via National Library of Australia
    .
  3. ^ "Naval and military". The Mercury. Hobart. 15 April 1931. p. 3. Retrieved 4 June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ a b c "White, Thomas Walter". National Archives of Australia. p. 83. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  5. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 3–4
  6. ^ Molkentin, Fire in the Sky, p. 7
  7. ^ Molkentin, Fire in the Sky, p. 8
  8. ^ Campbell-Wright, An Interesting Point, pp. 38, 164
  9. ^ Campbell-Wright, An Interesting Point, p. 39
  10. ^ Molkentin, Fire in the Sky, p. 10
  11. ^ Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, pp. 1–3
  12. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 5–6
  13. ^ Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, pp. 16–19
  14. ^ a b Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 7
  15. ^ Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, p. 19
  16. ^ Molkentin, Fire in the Sky, p. 19
  17. ^ Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, pp. 19–20
  18. ^ Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, p. 22
  19. ^ "No. 29665". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 July 1916. pp. 6959–6960.
  20. ^ a b Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, pp. 27–28
  21. ^ "No. 31378". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1919. pp. 7031–7032.
  22. ^ "No. 31691". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 December 1919. pp. 15613–15614.
  23. ISBN 1-86315-000-5
    .
  24. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  25. ^ Dennis, P., Grey, J., Morris, E., Prior, R., & Bou, J. (2008). "Army, Titles of". The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 July 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ "Australian Military Forces". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Canberra. 29 March 1923. p. 441. Retrieved 5 June 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  27. ^ "No. 27085". The London Gazette. 2 June 1899. p. 3517.
  28. ^ "The outbreak". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. 5 November 1923. p. 9. Retrieved 8 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  29. ^ "Maribyrnong". The Age. Melbourne. 25 November 1925. p. 12. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  30. ^ "Balaclava election". The Age. Melbourne. 5 August 1929. p. 8. Retrieved 31 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  31. ^ "The Balaclava election". The West Australian. Perth. 7 August 1929. p. 16. Retrieved 5 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  32. ^ "Federal election". The Argus. Melbourne. 17 October 1929. p. 10. Retrieved 31 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  33. ^ "Declaration of Balaclava poll". The Argus. Melbourne. 23 December 1931. p. 7. Retrieved 31 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  34. ^ "Latest Federal election figures from all the states". The Herald. Melbourne. 17 September 1934. p. 10. Retrieved 31 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  35. ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  36. ^ a b "House of Representatives". The Chronicle. Adelaide. 28 October 1937. p. 42. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  37. ^ "The Fateful Year". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  38. ^ Sykes, Cross Roads to Israel, pp. 198–199
  39. ^ Martin, Robert Menzies: A Life – Volume I, p. 237
  40. ^ Henderson, Joseph Lyons, p. 412
  41. ^ "New cabinet stir". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane. 9 November 1938. p. 1. Retrieved 25 May 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  42. ^ Henderson, Joseph Lyons, p. 419
  43. ^ "Mr Menzies leader of UAP". The Argus. Melbourne. 19 April 1939. p. 1. Retrieved 20 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  44. ^ Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 226
  45. ^ a b Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 97
  46. ^ "19,155 majority in Balaclava". The Argus. Melbourne. 9 October 1940. p. 5. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  47. ^ RAAF Historical Section, Training Units, pp. 44–45
  48. ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 35
  49. ^ Herington, Air War Against Germany and Italy, pp. 124–127
  50. ^ Herington, Air War Against Germany and Italy, p. 541
  51. ^ Herington, Air War Against Germany and Italy, p. 551
  52. ^ Parliamentary Library (26 March 2007). Commonwealth Members of Parliament who have served in war (PDF) (Report). pp. 9–10. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  53. ^ "Who's who in the elections". The Age. Melbourne. 10 August 1943. p. 3. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  54. ^ a b "Full list of today's candidates". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. 28 September 1946. p. 2. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  55. ^ RAAF Historical Section, Training Units, p. 178
  56. ^ "White, Thomas Walter". World War 2 Nominal Roll. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  57. ^ "Canberra commentary". The Argus. Melbourne. 21 October 1944. p. 11. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  58. ^ Ian Hancock. "The Origins of the Modern Liberal Party". Harold White Fellowships. Retrieved 25 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  59. ^ Helson, The Private Air Marshal, pp. 316–318
  60. ^ a b "Majority for Opposition likely in Victoria". The Canberra Times. Canberra. 5 December 1949. p. 4. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  61. Townsville Daily Bulletin
    . Townsville, Queensland. 28 April 1951. p. 7. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  62. ^ Martin, Robert Menzies: A Life – Volume II, pp. 129–130
  63. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 15, 326
  64. ^ "Air Minister states policy". Daily Mercury. Mackay, Queensland. 22 December 1949. p. 1. Retrieved 26 May 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  65. ^ "Speedy plane". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. 13 January 1950. p. 1. Retrieved 25 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  66. ^ "1950 a fine year for RAAF". The Queensland Times. Ipswich, Queensland. 8 January 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 25 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  67. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 205, 209, 244
  68. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 73, 347
  69. ^ Helson, The Private Air Marshal, pp. 348–352
  70. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 326
  71. ^ "404 candidates for Federal seats". The Age. Melbourne. 7 April 1951. p. 6. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  72. ^ "Mr. White won 10th election". The Age. Melbourne. 11 May 1951. p. 4. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  73. ^ "20th Parliament to meet for last session on April 6". The Examiner. Launceston. 24 March 1954. p. 19. Retrieved 25 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  74. ^ "Three new ministers". The Canberra Times. Canberra. 11 May 1951. p. 1. Retrieved 26 May 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  75. ^ "No. 39422". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1952. p. 38.
  76. ^ "Immigration pact with UK renewed". The Advocate. Burnie, Tasmania. 2 April 1954. p. 2. Retrieved 25 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  77. ^ "Migrants needed". The Mercury. Hobart. 16 August 1954. p. 10. Retrieved 25 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  78. ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  79. ^ "Memorial service to Sir Thomas White". The Canberra Times. Canberra. 17 October 1957. p. 3. Retrieved 25 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  80. ^ Pearn, J.P. (April 2012). "Pioneer aviation and a medical legacy: The T. W. White Society Prize for Thoracic Research" (PDF). Journal of Military and Veterans' Health. Vol. 20, no. 2. pp. 40–42. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  81. ^ "Papers of Sir Thomas White (1888–1957)". Canberra. Retrieved 25 March 2018 – via National Library of Australia.

References

Further reading

External links
Political offices
Preceded by
Minister for Trade and Customs

1932–1938 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Minister for Air

1949–1951 		Succeeded by
Minister for Civil Aviation

1949–1951 		Succeeded by
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Member for Balaclava
1929–1951 		Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Vacant
Last held by: Jack Beasley
Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom

1951–1956 		Succeeded by
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