World War I Commemorative Website

War Memorial Hall  c1929

Memorial Hall circa 1929
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Charles Stanley WHITE

WHITE

Charles White was born on 28 June 1896 in Lilydale, Victoria. His parents were Henry Charles and Jane (née Longmore) White. He attended Scotch from 1911 to 1913.

Charles was a clerk when he enlisted on 16 February 1917 in Melbourne, Victoria. He served in the 7th Battalion with the rank of Sergeant. His Regimental Number was 7581.

Charles died on 3 May 1921 at Canterbury, Victoria. He was 24 years of age.

Service record

Charles White was a useful recruit for the AIF, as he had previously been an Acting Staff Sergeant Major on the Australian Instructional Staff Corps. As a result, when he enlisted in the AIF in February 1917 at just 20 years of age he was given the substantive rank of Sergeant. After five months at a Recruits Depot at Royal Park, where he was probably involved in training recruits, he was allotted to the ‘Sports Unit’, which may have been synonymous with the 25th Reinforcements to the 7th Battalion. They embarked from Melbourne on 4 August 1917 and disembarked at Glasgow, Scotland, on 2 October. In England in November he attended a Staff Instruction Course, and then in February 1918 attended an NCOs’ School. Soon afterwards, on 2 March, he sailed from Southampton for France, where on 10 March 1918 he was taken on strength of the 7th Battalion, retaining his Sergeant’s rank.

On 5 June, he received a gunshot wound to the right forearm and his left leg. A foreign body was removed from a wound two inches (5cm) long below his right elbow and a wound five inches (12.5cm) long on the inner side of his left calf was stitched. He was evacuated to England. He was sufficiently recovered by 9 September to have a fortnight’s furlough. Charles did not rejoin his battalion until 4 December 1918, after the Armistice.

In April 1919, while still with the unit in France, Charles experienced a sudden onset of pain in his right side with physical signs of pleurisy. He was transferred to England and admitted to the 3rd Australian General Hospital. By 20 May he was in the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital, suffering with broncho-pneumonia and burns (his medical record is reproduced below). On 28 August 1919 he sailed from Southampton for Australia: he was being invalided home. He was discharged medically unfit from the army on 20 December 1919.

His service file contains a letter that Charles wrote in November 1919 asking for information on his service that he could show an insurance company (see below). Army doctors had expressed confidence that he would make a full and rapid recovery, but he died at his parents’ home in Canterbury on 3 May 1921. The Army acknowledged his death as attributable to war service (see below).

Charles White is buried in the Box Hill General Cemetery.

Photographs and Documents:

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Charles White’s medical record at 23 October 1919.

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Charles White’s letter to the Army, November 1919.

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The Army acknowledges that Charles White’s death was attributable to his war service. The signature is that of Captain S.F. Rowell, later Lieutenant General Sir Sydney Rowell, Chief of the General Staff (equivalent of today’s Chief of Army).

Sources:

  1. Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website
  2. ‘Family Notices’, The Argus, 4 May 1921,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1753485
  3. Mishura Scotch Database. The school’s Archivist, Paul Mishura, identified Charles as a Scotch War death in 2013. His name was added to the Memorial Hall Honour Roll in 2015.
  4. National Archives of Australia – B2455, WHITE C S
  5. Scotch Collegian
  6. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=320782

Page last updated: 11 November 2015