George Edward White.
Image courtesy ancestry.com.
George Edward White was born in Orange on 12 June 1886. He was the third child of George Henry White, bookbinder originally from Southampton, England and Margaret Elizabeth Stanmore.
He grew up in and around the gold mining villages of Euchareena and Farnham in New South Wales where his father had been mining for gold along the Macquarie River until his death in 1898.
George White enlisted on 28 September 1914 at Rosehill in Sydney and was assigned to the 13th Battalion. He gave his occupation as labourer and his next of kin as Margaret Elizabeth White, his mother, who was now living in Orange. George embarked at Melbourne on HMAT A38 Ulysses on 22 December 1914 but returned to Australia again on 4 May 1915 via Ceramic for medical treatment. He was discharged from Langwarrin in Victoria and returned to duty at Broadmeadows, Victoria.
On 14 March 1916 he was found to be Absent Without Leave (AWOL), and declared a deserter on 10 May 1916. According to Army protocol he was not issued with medals for service in WW1.
George married Sylvia Ellen Jackson in Morwell Victoria on 24 March 1916 and they had four children: William, Marjorie, Henry and Gwendoline. George died at the age of 57 and according to his obituary, was a keen sportsman, especially cricketer, who could boast to having taken eight wickets for two runs.
George Edward White was buried at Hazelwood cemetery in Victoria together with his wife Sylvia who died in 1977.
Morwell Advertiser, 15 June 1944, p. 1.
Death of Mr G White
* Sharon Jameson, 2016
