Cyril Brudenell Bingham White KCB KCMG (1876 - 1940)

Born on 23rd September 1876 at Saint Arnaud, Victoria (Australia), Cyril Brudenell Bingham White^[1] was the third son and seventh child of Irish emigrants, John Warren White, stock agent and retired army officer, and his wife, Maria Gibton. The family moved to Queensland in 1881 and lived on pastoral stations in the Gympie, Charters Towers and Gladstone areas before settling at Clayfield, Brisbane. Young White was educated at the local State School at Clayfield and then went to the Normal School (Teachers’ Training School) at the corner of Edward and Adelaide Streets in Brisbane, before receiving one year at the Eton Preparatory School, Nundah. He had wanted to be a barrister, like his grandfather, but at the age of sixteen took a job as a bank clerk and studied in his spare time. He made a friendship at this time with a clerk of a rival bank in Gympie, (later Major General Sir) Thomas Glasgow. White was provisionally commissioned on 7th October 1896 in the 2nd Queensland (Wide Bay and Burnett) Regiment, with his future-brother-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Hutchison, as commanding officer; and an exemplary military career was commenced.

Forging a military career

Transferring to the permanent forces, White was commissioned on 7th June 1899 in the Queensland Regiment of the Royal Australian Artillery and was stationed at Thursday Island in 1900-01. Subsequent to federation, he continued to serve in the Australian Military Forces. On 18th February 1902 White embarked for service in South Africa with the 1st Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse.^[2] The unit engaged in minor operations in the western Transvaal and Bechuanaland. White received the Queen’s Medal with three clasps. Upon his return, White was appointed aide-de-camps to Major General Hutton, the General officer Commanding the Australian Army. In this capacity, White received a first-hand study of the Army and its capability as he toured the nation with Hutton. Hutton recommended White be sent to the British Staff College.

Brudenell married Ethel Davidson on 15th November 1905 in Christ Church, South Yarra, Victoria.^[3] In late November, after a short honeymoon, he and Ethel boarded the new P&O ship Marmora and began their five-week journey to England to attend British Staff College.

He would be the first Australian Military Force officer to attend the Staff College. His and Ethel's first child, Margaret, would be born during this stay in England. Returning to Australia in 1908, having graduated with high honours, he was promoted to Captain. Even whilst he was aboard ship, his British superiors began working on how to get White back to England, believing his skills would be wasted in the smaller Australian Army. After some months as Director of Military Operations under General Bridges, he returned to England on a four-year appointment. He and Ethel and little Margaret left for England aboard the P&O Steamer India.

The Great War

White returned to Australia in 1912 to take up the post of Director of Military Operations at Army Headquarters, Melbourne, where he formulated plans for raising, equipping, training and despatching the Australian component of a combined Australian/New Zealand division should war arise. Within two years those plans were put into action as the Australian Imperial Force. With the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, in 1914 White left Australia once more for war, as chief of staff of the First Division.^[4] His advice was sought by General Birdwood and his staff when preparing plans for the historic landing at Gallipoli. He is also credited with the plans for the highly-successful evacuation of the ANZAC troops from Gallipoli. He was with General Bridges below Steele's Post, Gallipoli, on 15th May 1915 when the latter was mortally wounded by a Turkish sniper. White was appointed chief of staff to Birdwood in 1916 and when Birdwood was appointed to command the British Fifth Army he refused to part with the brilliant Australian. In November 1918 White was promoted to temporary Lieutenant General and made Chief of Staff, having briefly presided over the Demobilisation and Repatriation Branch.

The Brilliance of Brudenell

Returning to Australia in June 1919, White found that his first peacetime task was to, as part of a committee, consider the future organisation of the Australian Military Force. Their report recommended a modified system of compulsory military training and a citizen force structure of six infantry and two mounted divisions—some 180,000 men. Becoming Chief of the General Staff on 1st June 1920, White was prepared to implement the proposals, but faced savage cuts in defence spending. Rather than building a citizen army as he had hoped, he found himself preserving as much of it as he could in a nucleus organisation which would be capable of expansion in an emergency!

White was tasked with planning and organising the Australian tour of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and the Duke of Windsor), and was subsequently created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO).

Upon retiring as CGS and from the military in June 1923 (succeeded by his old tennis buddy, Sir Harry Chauvel), Sir Brudenell was appointed first chairman of the newly constituted Commonwealth Public Service Board. Although his primary task was to reclassify the service, he also supervised the progressive transfer of departments from Melbourne to Canberra. In 1927 White was again called upon for royal duties when he was tasked with making the federal arrangements for the visit of the Duke of York, later King George VI, and the Duchess of York. He was subsequently created Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).

Wishing to remain within weekly commuting distance of his grazing property, Woodnaggerak, near Buangor, Victoria, where he had established his home, White chose not to move to Canberra and in 1928 declined a further term on the Public Service Board. His withdrawal from public office enabled him to build up his pastoral interests and to enjoy the simple pleasures he preferred. He read widely, with a special interest in history.

Ever ready to give his time to charitable and service organisations, he became a trustee of the AIF Canteen Funds Trust and the Baillieu Education Trust, a member of the Australian War Memorial Board and the Patron of the Legacy Club.

Second World War

In March 1940, as Australia mobilised for the Second World War, the army was rocked by the death in office of the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Ernest Squires (in office just 105 days!). Without hesitation, and despite his being 63 years of age, White was coaxed from his seven-month retirement by then prime minister Robert Menzies, who asked him to lead the country's Second World War effort. On 15th April 1940 he was re-appointed Chief of the General Staff and promoted to General, just the third Australian to attain the rank.^[5] Two of his immediate acts as CGS was to recommend Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey for command of the new Australian Imperial Force and urge that Blamey and the 7th Division should sail as soon as possible to join the 6th Division. Then he grappled with the problems of training, munitions supply, defence fortification, and more.

Although White's appointment was also short-lived (148 days), he had stabilised much of the strategy and infrastructure necessary for Australia's defence, before the tragedy that robbed Australia of arguably its greatest soldier and three Federal Ministers. On 13th August 1940, the RAAF plane in which he, three Federal government ministers (James Fairbairn, Sir Henry Gullett and Geoffrey Street), other dignatories and aides were travelling crashed upon approach to Canberra airport. Lieutenant General Sir Vernon Sturdee was appointed CGS, effective immediately.

After a service at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, with State and military honours, White was buried in Buangor cemetery. His wife, two daughters and two sons survived him.^[6]

Honours and decorations

• Queen’s South Africa Medal with three Clasps, 1902
• Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, 1915^[7]
• Companion of the Order of the Bath, 1916
• Gold Order of Merit (Montenegro), 1917
• Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1918^[8]
• Croix de Guerre (Belgium), 1918
• 1914-1915 Star, 1918
• British War Medal, 1918
• Victory Medal, 1918
• Grand Officer of the Order of Aviz (Portugal), 1919
• Mentioned in Despatches, 1919^[9]
• Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1919^[10]
• Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1920^[11]
• Order of Rising Sun, 2nd Class (Japan), 1921 ^[12]
• Croix de Guerre (France), 1921
• Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, 1927^[13]

legacy

At a re-dedication of White's grave at Buangor, Russell Rachinger of Ararat Legacy said the General's memory had not lived on as it should, "A tremendous fellow, just forgotten. Completely forgotten," he said.^[14]

Sir Brudenell White is commemorated by a bronze plaque in the Church of St John the Baptist, Canberra.

Together with the three Australian Ministers who were killed in the Canberra air crash, White is commemmorated in the Air Disaster Memorial.^[15]

Sir John Monash is said to have described White as "far and away the ablest soldier Australia had ever turned out".

Sources

1. ↑ Victoria Birth Index #19476/1876
2. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: Lieutenant Cyril Brudenell Bingham White; accessed 15 Apr 2019
3. ↑ Victoria Marriage Index #6895/1905
4. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: Lieutenant General Cyril Brudenell Bingham White; accessed 15 Apr 2019
5. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: General Cyril Brudenell Bingham White; accessed 15 Apr 2019
6. ↑ RSL Virtual War Memorial; accessed 24 May 2018
7. ↑ Australian Honours: DSO; accessed 15 Apr 2019
8. ↑ Australian Honours: CMG; accessed 15 Apr 2019
9. ↑ Australian War Memorial Honours and Awards: MiD; accessed 15 Apr 2019
10. ↑ Australian Honours: KCMG; accessed 15 Apr 2019
11. ↑ Australian Honours: KCVO; accessed 15 Apr 2019
12. ↑ PERSONAL. (1921, April 8). The West Australian
    (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), p. 6. Retrieved April 1, 2023
13. ↑ Australian Honours: KCB; accessed 15 Apr 2019
14. ↑ Grave re-dedication; accessed 24 May 2018
15. ↑ Air Disaster Memorial; accessed 24 May 2018

See also

• Australian Defence Force Academy: Sir Brudenell White; accessed 24 May 2018.
• Australian War Memorial biography and timeline: General Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White; accessed 15 Apr 2019.
• Derham, Mark. Sir Brudenell White; accessed 24 May 2018.
• Grey, Jeffrey. 'White, Sir Cyril Brudenell' (1876–1940). Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 24 May 2018.
• Ten Journeys to Cameron’s Farm|8. The General: Brudenell White (I) . . with images . | 9. Call and recall: Brudenell White (II) . . with images.
• 'White, Sir Cyril Brudenell (1876–1940)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 22 July 2018.
• Wikipedia profile: Brudenell White; accessed 15 Apr 2019.