Top for collapsible table : Brigadier General C B B White, Headquarters, Anzac Corps, AIF

Top for collapsible camp table. The table top is made up of twenty 800 mm long wooden slats, covered by a sheet of heavy khaki canvas, which is attached to the two outermost slats by a row of tacks. On the underside are three equally spaced leather straps, which run across the slats, and are riveted to them. One slat is snapped in two, but retained in place by the rivets, and the last 75 mm of one slat is snapped off. On the central slat is a leather buckled strap to fasten the table top when it is rolled for storage, and a leather lifting handle. When unrolled flat, the top is held rigid by a pair of locking bars which are riveted at one end and pivot to clip on to brass posts on the opposite sides of the table. One of these locking bars has snapped, but has been repaired using a length of timber nailed and wired into place as a support. Pencilled markings on the bottom of the slats read 'Col C B B White' and 'Br Gen C B B White A & N Z Army Corp Hd Quarters'. The colour, quality and weight of the canvas matches that used on the accompanyng folding chair (REL29681).

Used by Brigadier General Cyril Brudenell Bingham White at Gallipoli, and thought to be the table upon which his evacuation plan was written. White was born at St Arnaud, Victoria, in 1876, but spent his early life in Queensland. He joined the Militia in 1896 and in 1899 successfully sat an examination to join the permanent forces, becoming a Lieutenant in the Queensland Regiment of Royal Australian Artillery. He served with the 1st Commonwealth Horse during the Boer War, and after his return to Australia received his first staff appointment, as temporary captain and aide-de-camp to Major General Hutton, commander of the Australian Military Forces. Nominated by Hutton, he attended the British Army Staff College, Camberley, in 1906, and graduated with good results. After several years in England, attached to the British War Office, Brudenell White was recalled to Australia as a major, to become director of military operations at Army Headquarters. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was selected by Major General Bridges to be chief of staff for the new Australian Imperial Force, and took part in the landing at Gallipoli in April 1915. After the death of Bridges in May, he became chief of staff to the new commander, Lieutenant General Birdwood. Promoted brigadier general in October, White was largely responsible for planning the successful evacuation of Anzac in December. Serving on the Western Front for the remainder of the war, he exerted great influence in his role as staff officer to Birdwood. He was suggested as a suitable leader for the Australian Corps when it was formed in 1918, but remained with Birdwood, becoming senior staff officer to the 5th Army. Disappointed with cuts made to the Australian military after the war, he retired as Chief of the General Staff in 1923, to take up civil appointments. In March 1940, after the outbreak of the Second World War, Brudenell White was recalled as CGS, but was killed in an air crash near Canberra on 13 August.

• Legs for collapsible table : Brigadier General C B B White, Headquarters, Anzac Corps, AIF