In 1920, White agreed to formally hand over some papers to the Australian War Memorial, which he had previously sent to the Australian War Records Section for safekeeping. These were mostly AIF operational papers for 1916. No more papers were received until 1951, those being donated by White's widow, Lady White. The final installments were donated by White's daughter in 1975 and 1977.
Restricted: Donor permission required to view collection. Contact the Curator of Private Records.
Copyright of materials described in this guide is governed by copyright law in Australia. For further information contact the Curator of Private Records, Research Centre.
Papers of General Sir Brudenell Bingham White, Australian War Memorial, 3DRL/1400
REL/00112
(uniform)
RELAWM/11852 (tunic)
RELAWM/12123 (map)
MS 5172
National
Archives of Australia
A5954, 54/21
A5954.
1248/33
B2455/1
A1378, P8903
A1241
Early years
Cyril Bingham Brudenell White was born 23 September 1876 in St Arnaud,
Victoria, and grew up on pastoral stations in Queensland. He went to school in
Brisbane and at age 16 gained employment as a bank clerk.
White took
an interest in the military joining the Queensland military forces in 1895. By
1899, he was a commissioned officer in the Queensland Regiment of the Royal
Australian Artillery. He was stationed on Thursday Island at the turn of the
century, and in 1902 went to South Africa with the 1st Battalion, Australian
Commonwealth Horse, when the war was drawing to a close.
In 1904 he
was made aide-de-camp to Major General Sir Edward Hutton with whom he travelled
extensively throughout Australia, working toward the moulding of the former
State forces into a national force. The following year 1905, White married
Ethel Davidson, and left Australia to attend the British Army Staff College in
England.
White spent time from 1906 - 1908 in England where he served
as a Staff Officer at the War Office in London. He returned to Australia in
early 1908 where he rose to the rank of Major at Army Headquarters in
Melbourne.
First World War
At the outbreak of the war, White was appointed Lieutenant Colonel and
Chief of Staff of the 1st Australian Division, AIF. He landed at Gallipoli on
April 25 1915 where he spent the next eight months working tirelessly in his
staff duties. In October he was promoted to Brigadier General and was given the
task of planning the withdrawal of the ANZAC forces from Gallipoli. That the
withdrawal was conducted with such success and with negligible casualties, is
evidence of White's organisational skills.
During the first months of
1916, the AIF remained in Egypt where White was instrumental in building of the
force that had now doubled in size. From March 1916 until May 1918, he
continued his vital work as a staff officer under General Birdwood in France
and Belgium and was widely regarded as the man who truly ran the AIF. In May
1918, when Birdwood was promoted to command the British 5th Corps, many felt
that White was the logical choice to command the AIF. Seemingly reluctant to
accept this, he instead accompanied Birdwood to 5 Corps as his Chief of Staff.
After the armistice was signed in November, White was appointed to the
Demobilisation Board in London until returning to Australia in 1920.
Between the wars
On 28 November 1918 White was promoted to Lieutenant General and was given the post of Chief of the Australian General Staff, drawing up plans for the training of the nation's citizen forces. He retired from military service in 1923 and took up the post of Chairman of the Commonwealth Public Service Board. In 1928 he resigned this post and took up the position of Chairman and Superintendent for Australia of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency. Combining this with various other appointments including to the Board of the Australian War Memorial and the Council of Defence, White still found time to relax on his farm in rural Victoria and enjoy family life.
The Second World War
On 15 March 1940, following the death of Lieutenant General E K
Squires, White was recalled to take over the position of Chief of the General
Staff when Australia again found itself at war. Now aged 63, he was promoted to
General and was busily involved in organising the Second AIF for service
overseas. As fate would have it, he was not to see much of the Second World
War. On 13 August 1940 he flew with several prominent military officers and
Federal Ministers from Melbourne to Canberra. The aircraft crashed as it
approached the aerodrome at Canberra, killing White and all others on board
instantly.
White's funeral was at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne
where he was given state and military honours. He was survived by his wife and
four children.
References:
The strength of the collection lies in the correspondence between
Brudenell White and key military figures such as General Birdwood and Bridges
during his military service, and with C. E. W. Bean regarding the writing of
the official war histories of both Australia and Britain. The cornerstone of
the collection are the diaries covering every year from 1895 until 1940
documenting his official career.
The Brudenell White collection is
diverse and spans his military and defence career from 1895 until his death in
1940 Few items relate to his brief service in the South African War however his
attachment to the Staff College and War Office in London prior to the First
World War is better represented [ official papers and
correspondence].
Papers relating to the First World War cover both the
Gallipoli campaign and the Western Front. There is a mixture of official
reports and notes on operations including the withdrawl from Gallipoli and
Allied offensive operations on the Western Front, particularly in 1918.
Additionally, there are miscellaneous military articles, souvenirs and
ephemera.
The period between the wars when Brudenell White was a
leading figure in planning Australia's future defence, is particularly well
represented with numerous notes and reports from meeting and studies, as well
as correspondence with other officials.