Ernest White, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetErnest White
Australian businessman and political activist
Date of Birth: 
About Ernest White
- Sir Ernest Keith White CBE, MC (14 August 1892 – 1 August 1983) was an Australian timber merchant and political activist. He was born at Gosford to timber contractor Robert John White and Bertha, née Davis.
- After attending Gosford Public School, he left at twelve and served in the junior cadets and worked for his father.
- He studied by correspondence with Sydney Technical College, qualifying through the Royal Sanitary Institute as a sanitary engineer.
- He worked as an inspector for Gosford and Moree shire councils before passing the local government and shire clerk's certificate.
- On 8 June 1915 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force.
- He married schoolteacher Pauline Marjory Mason, daughter of the mayor of Gosford, on 15 November 1915, and embarked as a second lieutenant in January 1916 as part of reinforcements for the 4th Battalion.
- He was wounded at Pozières in July and, after returning, rose to become the adjutant in July 1917.
- At Strazeele in April 1918 he reconnoitred the front line under heavy fire, winning the Military Cross and a mention in despatches.
- Promoted captain in September, his appointment was terminated on 5 April 1919.After the war, White returned to work with his father's timber business, moving the headquarters to Sydney.
- Based in Strathfield, he also bought a timber property near Gloucester and developed land at Terrigal, Wamberal and Forresters Beach.
- He owned several successful racehorses, which helped finance an opulent house built in 1936.
- He helped establish the British American Co-operation Movement for World Peace (which became the Australian-American Association) in July 1936, and served as federal and state president; he was significantly involved in the creation of the Australian-American Memorial in Canberra.White was also politically active, mainly in anti-Labor circles.
- He tried to persuade Roden Cutler to head a National and Services Movement, but instead launched the Liberal Democratic Party on 16 April 1943 with Stanley S.
- Crick.
- The LDP had fraught relations with the United Australia Party and its New South Wales successor the Democratic Party, but it never won seats at federal or state level.
- In December 1944 White was a founder of the Liberal Party of Australia and the LDP was dissolved in January 1945.
- Initially sitting on the provisional executive, he soon resigned in April 1945, standing as an independent for the federal seat of Warringah in 1954; this led to his expulsion from the Liberal Party.
- He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1954, Commander in 1967 and knighted in 1969.
- He died in 1983 at North Sydney and was survived by his wife and two daughters, his son having been killed during World War II.
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