John Claude White

John Claude White (1 October 1853 – 1918) CIE was an engineer, photographer, author and civil servant in British India.

The son of army surgeon John White (1871-1920) and Louise Henriette (Claude) Pfeffer White, he was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. His education included a period at Rugby School for six months in 1868. White later studied at the Royal Indian Engineering College in Cooper's Hill, Surrey before joining the Bengal Public Works Department as Assistant Engineer in 1876.

White originally worked in Bengal, Nepal and Darjeeling. In 1883, he was assigned to the British Residency in Kathmandu, Nepal where he photographed the architecture and monuments. He was appointed Political Officer in the north east Indian Kingdom of Sikkim in 1889. He became chairman of the council that advised Sikkim's Chogyal Thutob Namgyal whereafter he reorganised Sikkim's administration before going on to order land and mineral surveys and develop unused wasteland. He also established a forestry department and the first police post in Aritar as well as introduced English apple cultivation in the northern towns of Lachung and Lachen.

Following the 1890-1893 Convention of Calcutta signed by Britain and Qing dynasty China, White was despatched to Yatong at the foot of the Chumbi Valley in Tibet to assess the trade situation at the new outpost. He subsequently reported that although the Chinese were friendly towards him, they "had no authority whatever" and were unable to control the Tibetans. White concluded that "China was suzerain over Tibet only in name".

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