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their accommodation had to find their way through the scrub and lines of latrines and shower blocks to reach the
wards. It was soon evident that yet another move was essential. With the arrival of elements of the 6th Division
to the north and the new spirit of resolve promoted by Major General Edmund Herring, who had taken over
command, a new site was selected on the south side of the Adelaide River about five kilometres from the other
installations and adjoining the Army farm.
In the period immediately before the move to the south side of the river, White was required to take care of a
number of United States nurses and other women who had escaped from Corregidor in the Philippines. These were
given care in the hospital until arrangements could be made for their evacuation south. In addition, between
October and December 1942, she had to deal with groups of women and children from islands to the north of
Australia. She wrote that ‘their admission to the hospital presented many difficulties, so few being able to speak
English. They were starving and very ill... there were a few deaths among the nuns who were some of the refugees.
They had been hiding in the hills of Timor and were badly in need of clothing.’ These people numbered well
over 300 and presented a specifically difficult nursing and social challenge to her staff. During the remainder of
1942 and into 1943, the hospital received many casualties resulting from Australian and American air operations
to the north and some from bombing raids that continued. Other major problems were the result of the climatic
conditions with skin diseases causing distress. Of course, there were always the usual cases of illness and accidents
to keep the hospital busy. However, by 1943, the immediate threat of invasion had passed and enemy air raids were
few so that the role of the hospital was changing.
In March 1943, White was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Australian Army Nursing Service
and appointed as Principal Matron in the Northern Territory. It was in this period that she had the honour of
escorting Lady Gowrie, wife of the Governor General, on an inspection tour of hospitals in the Territory. After a
period of some seven years in the Territory, she was moved to New South Wales as Principal Matron of the Lines
of Communication Area there. In January 1945, she was appointed Principal Matron attached to the Headquarters
of the First Australian Army, where her duties covered areas of New Guinea, New Britain and Bougainville.
In March 1946, she returned to Australia and was discharged from the Army.
For many of her friends and those who served with her it seemed strange that White’s service was not honoured
in some formal way. She never mentioned this but perhaps she felt that she was not considered because her war
service had not included a period in the Middle East. She once made the comment that other nursing personnel
regarded her service as inferior. As she put it, ‘I did not have sand in my shoes’. She was, instead, part of an expert
medical team responsible for the care and healing of thousands of men and women involved in war in the only
place in Australia where major enemy action was encountered, but no official recognition was given.
Upon her discharge, she took up an appointment with the Cootamundra Hospital in New South Wales but later
decided to travel overseas. She subsequently worked in Perth and Brisbane, where she retired. She died there on
25 May 1988. At the funeral, conducted by Archdeacon Ward former war nurses placed her cape and veil on the
casket.
A W Grant, Australia’s Frontline Matron: Edith McQuade White, 1991.
ARCH W GRANT, Vol 2.WHITE, MAX (1895–1966), pastoralist, soldier and Commanding Officer of the 2/1st North Australia Observer
Unit, Australian Imperial Force (AIF), was born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales in 1895, the eldest son of
Mr and Mrs E R White of Merton Station. White was a member of the well-known pastoral family of the same
name from the Upper Hunter and New England districts of New South Wales; the author, Patrick White, was his
second cousin. He entered the King’s School at Parramatta in 1909 and there attained considerable notoriety, both
scholastically and in almost every field of sport. He won the school boxing championship and was a polo player of
some note. He passed the University Junior and Matriculation examinations and arrangements were made for him
to pursue his studies at Oxford University with a view to a medical career. The First World War intervened and he
was, for a brief period, a member of the Australian Imperial Force. He would have been commissioned but for his
age, although he passed through an Officers’ Training School with credit.
He then enlisted in the Royal Artillery in England but was soon commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the
Special Reserve and posted to the 5th Brigade of the Royal Frontier Artillery (RFA). He saw action in France and
was Mentioned-in-Despatches for bravery. Further, in August 1916, the 64th Battery RFA suffered severely in
action, the battery commander and two other officers being killed, leaving White and a fellow subaltern to take
charge of the battery for eight days until both were wounded. White received the Military Cross (MC) for his
bravery at this time.
White saw the Armistice as a substantive Captain. After the war ended, he returned to Australia and lived for a
while on the family property. After its sale, he and other members of his family purchased Woorang Downs in the
Terry Hie-Biniguy district in 1921. He married Rosalie May Cowdery at St Paul’s Church of England in Burwood,
Sydney in 1922 and they later had two daughters. Woorang Downs was soon sold and they leased Loch Leven
on the western side of Moree until 1926 when Max purchased Glen Royal at Yagobie, on which he lived until the
time of his death some forty years later. He was a member of the Gravesend, New South Wales, Returned Services
League, and for many years led the annual ANZAC Day march.
He continued his sporting pursuits, being a top-class polo player through the 1920s. In the late 1930s, White put
his equestrian expertise to a more practical use and again donned a uniform, being commissioned as a Lieutenant
on 23 August 1939. He commanded the Gravesend Troop of the 24th Light Horse Regiment (LHR), Citizen’s
Military Forces, although he later came to command C Squadron. Among his troopers in 24LHR was Alan Joseph