The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (407309) Sergeant Garet Sidney White, No. 1 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (407309) Sergeant Garet Sidney White, No. 1 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

407309 Sergeant Garet Sidney White, No. 1 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 8 December 1941
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 7 December 2016

Today we pay tribute to Sergeant Garet Sidney White, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born in Gawler, South Australia, on 2 April 1920, Garet White – known as “Garry” – was the son of Cornelius White and Myrtle White and the youngest brother to Doris and Alan White.

The Second World War broke out in 1939, and White enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on the 17th of August 1940, aged 20. His brother, Alan, also enlisted in the RAAF. Garry commenced training as a wireless operator and air gunner, while Alan trained as a pilot and went on to serve in the Mediterranean theatre and in Europe. He survived the war.

Following training, Gary White embarked in May 1941 for overseas service, where he joined No. 1 Squadron, RAAF, at Sembawang in Singapore. In August the squadron moved to Kota Bharu in north-east Malaya. There White joined the crew of a Lockheed Hudson, a twin-engine light bomber. From its base at Kota Bharu, No. 1 Squadron carried out coastal reconnaissance and patrols.

No. 1 Squadron was the first squadron to see action in the Pacific war. Before the Japanese raids on Pearl Harbor – which happened on 7 December on the other side of the International Date Line – Japanese convoys were sighted moving south of Indo-China.

Early on 8 December seven Hudsons of No. 1 Squadron were despatched after reports that a convoy of Japanese warships was shelling beach defences and preparing to land troops in Malaya. By dawn one transport had been destroyed, a second was ablaze, and a third later disappeared after receiving many direct hits. No. 1 Squadron lost two aircraft and their crews.

White was the wireless operator air gunner in one of the lost Hudsons. His aircraft was shot down and crashed into the sea off Kota Bahru while attacking the Japanese invasion fleet. Only one of White’s fellow crewmates – Donald Dowie – survived the crash. Dowie became the first Australian to be captured as a prisoner of war by the Japanese.

White was first reported as missing, presumed killed. It was not until Dowie’s return home after his release from captivity at the end of the war that the White’s fate was confirmed.

Back home in Australia White’s mother, Myrtle, refused to believe that her youngest son was dead. She wrote several times to the RAAF, stating her belief that her son had survived due to information conveyed by the spirit of her late husband, Cornelius. She believed that Garry had been rescued by local people, or by an American submarine, and had been taken to America and was suffering from amnesia following the crash.

Subsequent investigations by the RAAF could not support Myrtle’s belief. There was no doubt that that White was killed in action. He was 21 years old.

The two engines from the aircraft in which White was a crewmember were discovered and recovered from the ocean floor by a local Malaysian fisherman in 1979. These became part of the Memorial’s collection, and are now displayed in the galleries.

White’s name is commemorated upon the Singapore Memorial at the British and Commonwealth war cemetery at Kranji, Singapore.

Sergeant Garet Sidney White’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sergeant Garet Sidney White, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Military History Section