Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

Tom Warren White, (28 November 1902 - 14 June 1993) was an Australian soldier who served during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Early life

Tom was born in Brisbane, Queensland on 28 November 1902, the third son of John Warren White and Elizabeth Matilda Rosa Georgina Barker. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Australian Army Staff Corps in 1924. He was seconded to the Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons) between 1926 and 1927 in India and attended the

Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which i ...

from 1937 to 1940. Tom was attached to the

British War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

in 1939 and served with the British forces in France in 1940.

Second World War

With Japan's entry into the war in December 1941, the 2/1st Battalion was ordered to return to Australia from the Middle East. White had been appointed as commanding officer. Whilst en route, the battalion was diverted to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

to defend it from a possible Japanese invasion. The invasion never eventuated and the battalion finally arrived home in August 1942.

Later life

He was appointed the representative of the Australian military mission of the

Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority (german: Alliierter Kontrollrat) and also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and Allied-occupied Austria after the end of Wo ...

for Germany, in Berlin in 1945. He was awarded the Legion of Merit (Officer) by the United States for "invaluable assistance in the preparation of plans affecting Australian and combined forces in the South-west Pacific area from 1943 to 1945".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Tom Warren 1902 births 1993 deaths Australian brigadiers Australian Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Brisbane Burials in Queensland Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley War Office personnel in World War II