Profile

WHITE, John Alexander
(Service number 2/1126)

Aliases Alec; Ally
First Rank Gunner Last Rank Sergeant

Birth

Date 18 November 1882 Place of Birth Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Durie Street, Durie Hill, Wanganui
Occupation Farm labourer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Mrs K. WHITE (mother), Durie Street, Durie Hill, Wanganui
Religion Roman Catholic
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation 2nd Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship New Zealand Field Artillery
Date 24 December 1914
Transport Verdala or Willochra or Knight of the Garter
Embarked From Wellington Destination
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards Military Medal

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Gardener

Death

Date 17 October 1961 Age 79 years
Place of Death Wanganui
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Wanganui Old Catholic Cemetery
Memorial Reference Block 51, Plot 57
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

John Alexander White, known as Alec, and at his death as Ally, was the son of Alfred and Catherine (née Walsh) White. In 1918 at Hebuterne he was awarded the Military Medal. This "old Geraldine boy" was remembered at a function of the Geraldine Patriotic Committee in in August 1918. Alec lost the sight of one eye in the war. He returned to Geraldine in May 1919, when the Mayor remarked that "Sergeant White had returned with the mark of the beast upon him, but he hoped he would soon get rid of his wounds." Alec's father, an architect, died in 1897 and is buried at Geraldine with the eldest son who died a year earlier.. Some years later his mother and several of the family, including Alec, moved to Wanganui. Alec married Frances Jane Stewart in 1920. His youngest brother, Thomas Ernest White, was died of wounds in 1917 in France and a nephew Leo Orton White was killed in action in November 1918 in France.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [25 May 2018]; Temuka Leader, 10 August 1918, Timaru Herald, 8 May 1919 (Papers Past) [22 May 2018]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [29 May 2018]; Wanganui Cemetery record [29 May 2018]

External Links

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