The White Family of Northcote : At War

The First World War provides us with many rich and varied stories, but rarely do these little scenarios spread across three conflicts.

For the White family of Northcote, the curtain opens with an article in the Northcote Leader, 18 August, 1900 :

“My husband is out on active service in South Africa and I won’t receive any money from him until November. I have seven children and somebody has to stay home to mind the two babies while I am out working”.

“This was the very strong reason a mother gave Northcote Court on Monday for not sending her daughter to school the required number of days during the quarter ending June, yet the magistrates had to smother their feelings of sympathy and fined her 2/6d. Though it be for the general good, the “compulsory clause” hardly works out in some cases”

.Extensive research reveals the unnamed husband was Henry WHITE, Regimental Number 34, Private, 3rd West Australian Bushmen. He was listed as a 34-year-old station hand when he volunteered; for the rest of his history, we refer to the Euroa Advertiser, 14 June, 1901.

“Private Harry White, who recently returned to his home in Northcote on sick leave from South Africa, where he had served 15 months with one of the West Australian contingents, and where he had his ribs broken through several horses being killed around him, and was wounded also by a shot in the shoulder, came by his end in a sad and sudden way last week. A week previously he was chatting away gaily in a local hairdresser’s shop about his adventures at the front. Next day he felt unwell, the following day he was in bed with pneumonia, on Monday he was taken to the Melbourne Hospital, on Tuesday be was dead. His wife and several children are left”.

White died on 4 June, 1901 – nothing was mentioned of him in the Leader and just why the paragraph appeared in a newspaper at Euroa remains a mystery (there was nothing in the article linking White to the district).

Murray’s history of the Boer war [1] acknowledges White’s death as resulting from exposure in South Africa while on service, but makes no mention of him being wounded. The “several children” referred to in the Advertiser reveals White as the husband of the woman earlier fined in Northcote in May, 1900 for not sending one of her seven children to school.

[1] “Official Records of the Australian Military Contingents to the War in South Africa 1899-1902” compiled and edited for the Department Of Defence by Lieutenant-Colonel P. L. Murray, Royal Australian Artillery (Retired) and released in 1911.

The family connection is confirmed by a Death Notice on 21 June, 1937 for one of the children, Henry John which showed him as married (although with his late father’s Regiment shown incorrectly) :

“… the loving son of Florence Emma and the late Henry White (5th Bushmen’s Contingent, Boer War), brother of Robert, Charles, George, Harold, Arthur and Clarice (Mrs. Neavan)”.

Florence Emma MULWAY is shown as marrying Henry White in 1886 : as well as the children listed, there was another Florence Emma (junior) who died shortly after birth.

All five sons of Henry White volunteered for World War 1 service (although as we will see, there is some doubt as to whether he was actually the father of the youngest). In order of enlisting they were :

George Leslie White, enlisted 12 July, 1915, mother shown as DEAN, father dead, but with an unnamed step-father noted. Assigned 3512, 8 Infantry and embarked 11 October, but was returned after around six weeks in Egypt suffering from severe asthenia (today’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and granted a pension, cancelled August, 1917. George died while still in Northcote in 1955, aged 64, aged 46;

Charles Cuthbert White, 20 years and 1 month, enlisted with George on 12 July, 1915, mother shown as DEANS, no number assigned but nominally attached to 12th Infantry, discharged after three months in Ascot Vale Camp as medically unfit after contracting meningitis while in training. Later noted as recuperating at the Osborne House Rest Home in Geelong. Charles died in Cheltenham in 1942

John Henry White, 27 years, enlisted 10 May, 1916, mother shown as WHITE, served 2466, Private, 2nd Pioneers, returned to Australia in July, 1918 suffering from an eye disease believed related to a severe case of syphilis contracted while on Leave in London earlier in the year (Death Notice above, late of 38 Henry Street, Northcote, 48 years of age).

Robert Milton White, 25 years and 2 months, enlisted 18 August, 1917, mother shown as WHITE. Served as 5130, Private, 29 Infantry before returning mid-1918 with general debility following a hospitalization with influenza. He was shown in 1945 when applying for a replacement medal at 26 Bent Street, Northcote. Died 20 November, 1968, interred Mt Gravatt Cemetery, Queensland, and

Harold William White, enlisted 6 May, 1918, mother shown as WHITE, claiming to be 18 years and six months of age, allotted 61709 (Depot) and assigned to 12th General Reinforcements, but discharged as underage when he was discovered to be just 16-and-a-half. He later confessed to the fact when placed under open arrest for supply false information on his attestation “I had two brothers at the front and I was anxious to join them”.

Harold was still living locally (25 Clapham Street, Thornbury) when he enlisted for Second World War duties on 13 June, 1940, his wife Peggy (nee RODEN, married 1924) as next of kin. He served until 2 March, 1944 as a Gunner with 109 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment. Death not traced, but Peggy died in Fitzroy (possibly St. Vincent’s) in 1952, aged 51, the Funeral Notice has the couple (no children) at 164 Separation Street, Northcote, interred Fawkner Crematorium.

A note in the Northcote Leader after George and Charles enlisted together has their mother as Mrs. F. E. DEANE (but correctly DEANS) of Clarke-street, Northcote, the address on their brother’s later Attestations shown as the corner of Simpson-street.

THE UNCERTAIN BITS

Whether their mother was in fact legally Mrs DEAN or DEANS is somewhat problematical : there is no marriage listed under either name to Florence and on her death in South Northcote in 1940 at 72 years (1868), her father was given was Robert Henry DEANS, seemingly in error as her own birth registration shows Robert Henry MULWAY, who directories in the mid-1880’s have in Clarke Street, Northcote. Mulway was shown as her maiden name on birth registrations, although not all appear in Victorian registrations.

The two youngest children in the Death Notice, Clarice May (1906) and Arthur (1909) were born in Northcote several years after Henry’s demise and confuse the issue further. Clarice’s parents show as Arthur and Florence Emma DEAN (their mother’s maiden name still shown as MULWAY). Arthur junior, however, is registered twice – once as Arthur Dean MULWAY, and again as Arthur Dean WHITE, the father shown as “Unknown” in both cases, but again, Florence as MULWAY.

Clarice married Leonard Henry NEAVAN in 1932, the couple in Sandringham where Leonard was in partnership as a blacksmith with his father Thomas for many years, but there is no trace of either of their deaths in Victorian record.

Arthur DEANS junior expanded the family’s links to the military by enlisting for Second World War duties on 6 October, 1941, living in Northcote with Arthur senior at 93 Cuthbert-road, Reservoir as next of kin. He served as VX64288, Signalman, 15 Australian Line of Communications before being discharged 7 January, 1946. He died unmarried  in Heidelberg (probably the Repatriation Hospital) in 1974 aged 66.

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The other mystery is why Henry White was serving with a Western Australian Bushmen’s Contingent.

The 3rd Bushmen’s Contingent sailed from Fremantle on 13 March, 1900 with 7 officers, 109 volunteers and 127 horses and left Cape Town on 9 May, 1901; it was in fact possibly the longest serving of any unit from the Australian colonies.

It may have been that White was working in Western Australia, but against that is his apparent return to Melbourne almost immediately after landing in Western Australia and prior to his death. There is no entry under Henry White in Northcote in the 1900 directory, but Mrs Florence White was shown at 122 Hawthorn Road (and in 1904 and with the initial E. added, at 52 Station Avenue (now Claude Street).

In general, married men were not accepted for South Africa except for commissioned officers with exceptional service – it could be that White volunteered in Western Australia to bypass this restriction – the statement in the court case that the woman was expecting money in November suggests he was still supporting his family in some way.

Western Australian newspaper listed him prior to embarking with Regimental Number 34 and as a station-hand from Victoria “Specially Enrolled” with no previous military experience. The listings are interesting in that in an early list of 93 accepted, only 13 were born in Western Australia, 25 from Victoria the largest group, 57 had no previous military experience, said to be the highest proportion of any contingent raised in that colony.

(“Bushmen’s Contingents” were raised in every colony prior to Federation after early experiences in South Africa proved a high proficiency in riding and shooting was far more valuable against the formidable Boer opposition than traditional methods of soldiering, a lesson many British units failed to learn with tragic results).

A question mark thus surrounds the parentage of Harold William, the youngest of the children attributed to Henry White.  

Victorian BDM has him as born in 1901; exact dates are not given, but his records show 26 October (his WW1 Attestation showed the same day and month, but the year as 1899) when he volunteered for World War 2 duties on 13 June, 1940, still in Northcote with his wife Peggy nee RODEN as next of kin. He served as VX31651 until discharge on 2 March, 1944 as a Gunner with 109 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment.

The bulk of the 3rd Bushmen on arrived back at Fremantle on 28 May, 1901. The only list published did not include Henry, nor does Murray indicate an early return, but “Trooper White of the West Australian Bushmen” was noted as landing per s.s. Suevic at Albany on 2 May, the only “Western Australian” among 61 troops that arrived home on the vessel.

There is no way of tracing exactly when White left for Melbourne, but with a three-to-four day sea voyage, he probably would not arrived back in Northcote until mid-May at the latest, rather too late to have sired Harold who given his birth in late October was seemingly conceived in late February!

Was the mysterious Arthur Deans already close at hand???

Other than the reference in the Euroa Advertiser, the only other remaining tribute to Henry White’s death is an entry on the Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial in King’s Park, Perth erected in honour of the 40 officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the Western Australian contingents who were killed in action or died from wounds or disease during the war in South Africa and unveiled on Saturday, 6 September, 1902 by His Excellency the Administrator, Sir Edward Stone.

“Private H WHITE, Third Contingent, died in Melbourne, prior to discharge, 4.6.1901”.

Both images show the Memorial in King’s Park, Perth.