Brudenell White
| Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White | |
|---|---|
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General Brudenell White in March 1940
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| Born | 23 September 1876 St Arnaud, Victoria |
| Died | 13 August 1940 (aged 63) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory |
| Allegiance | Australia |
| Service/branch | Australian Army |
| Years of service | 1896–1923 1940 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held | Chief of the General Staff |
| Battles/wars |
Second Boer War |
| Awards |
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches (8) |
| Other work | Chairman of the Public Service Board |
Second Boer War
First World War
General Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White KCB, KCMG, KCVO, DSO (23 September 1876 – 13 August 1940) was a senior officer in the Australian Army, who served as Chief of the General Staff from 1920 to 1923 and again from March to August 1940, when he was killed in the Canberra air disaster.
White was born in St Arnaud, Victoria, on 23 September 1876. He joined the colonial militia force in Queensland in 1896, and served in the Second Boer War with the Australian Commonwealth Horse. In 1901 he became a founding member of the new Australian Army, and in 1906 was the first Australian officer to attend the British Army staff college. In 1912 he returned to Australia and became Director of Military Operations, at a time when Andrew Fisher's Labor government was expanding Australia's defence capacity.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, White supervised the first contingents of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to go the front. At Gallipoli, he was chief of staff to Major General Sir William Bridges and then to William Birdwood, gaining the rank of brigadier general. After the evacuation from Gallipoli which he masterminded as "The Silence Ruse", he was Brigadier General, General Staff of I ANZAC Corps in France. In the battle for the Pozières Heights in late July 1916 which ended in failure, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front, General Sir Douglas Haig, found fault with Birdwood and White. White stood up to Haig and pointed out that whatever mistakes had been made, the commander-in-chief had been misinformed in several particulars, which White then specified "in detail, item by item". Haig was so impressed that when he had finished he placed his hand on White's shoulder claiming, "I dare say you're right, young man."
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