William Henry White

William Henry White
Sir William Henry White
Born	2 February 1845 Plymouth, Devon
Died	27 February 1913(1913-02-27) (aged 68) London
Nationality	English
Education	Royal School of Naval Architecture
Engineering career
Discipline	Civil, Marine
Institutions	Institution of Civil Engineers (president), Institution of Mechanical Engineers (president), Institution of Marine Engineers (president)
Projects	Royal Sovereign class battleships, King Edward VII-class battleships, Royal Yacht HMY Victoria and Albert III, passenger liner RMS Mauretania

Sir William Henry White, KCB, FRS, FRSE (2 February 1845 – 27 February 1913) was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty.

He was born in Devonport and became an apprentice at the naval dockyard there in 1859. In 1863 he obtained a scholarship to enter the newly formed Royal School of Naval Architecture in South Kensington, in London. After his apprenticeship he worked for the Admiralty on specifications and calculations for new ships, and became secretary to the then Chief Constructor of the Admiralty, Edward Reed, until the latter's resignation on 9 July 1870.

He was then appointed instructor on naval design at the Royal School of Naval Architecture, and in 1872 became secretary of the Council of Construction which oversaw all Royal Navy ship construction. From 1872–1873 he worked at Pembroke and Portsmouth Dockyards.

In March 1875 he was promoted to Assistant Constructor and married later in that year. He also published his A Manual of Naval Architecture. For the use of Officers of the Royal Navy, Shipbuilders. He resigned from the Admiralty in April 1883 and joined Sir William Armstrong's company as designer and manager of their warship construction. He returned to the Admiralty as Director of Naval Construction and Assistant Controller of the Navy on 1 August 1885. He was immediately involved in a reorganisation of the dockyards and technical departments, and later worked on the design of the revolutionary Royal Sovereign-class battleships. He was knighted in 1895.