Brudenell White

Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White
General Brudenell White in March 1940
Nickname(s)	Brudenell
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Australian Army
Years of service	1897–1923 March–August 1940
Rank	General
Commands held	Chief of the General Staff
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War Gallipoli Campaign Western Front Battle of the Somme Battle of Pozières Second World 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

General Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White KCB, KCMG, KCVO, DSO (23 September 1876 – 13 August 1940), Australian soldier, was Chief of the General Staff of the Australian Army from 1920 to 1923 and again from March to August 1940, when he was killed in the Canberra air disaster.

Early Life and career

White was born in St Arnaud in Victoria. He joined the colonial militia force in Queensland in 1898, and served in the Boer War. In 1901 he became a founding member of the new Australian Army, and in 1906 was the first Australian officer to attended 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.

First World War

When the First World War broke out in 1914, he 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 chief administrative officer of the AIF in France, under the command of John Monash. In the battle for the Pozières plateau at the end of July he allowed the confidence of others to bear down his own misgivings, but after this failure, when the senior British commander General Douglas Haig was finding fault with Birdwood and White, he 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 proceeded to specify. Haig was so impressed that when he had finished he put his hand on White's shoulder and said, "I dare say you're right, young man." During 1917 the value of the Australian troops was being more and more appreciated, but among the troops themselves there was some feeling that they were being too often sacrificed through the mistakes of the higher command. By September White had become convinced that as far as possible piecemeal operations must be avoided, that too great advances should not be attempted, and that there must be a proper use of artillery barrage. These tactics were successfully applied in the Menin-road battle on 20 September, and in subsequent thrusts.

Early in 1918, White, realizing the difficulties of repatriation at the end of the war, raised the problem of what would have to be done while the men were waiting for shipping. This led to the educational scheme afterwards adopted. In May, Birdwood and White, at the request of General Rawlinson, prepared plans for an offensive but these were shelved in the meanwhile. When General Birdwood was given command of the fifth army, the choice of his successor in command of the Australian corps lay between Monash and White. Monash was White's senior and, though White's reputation stood very high, it was impossible to pass over so capable and successful an officer as Monash. White was given the important position of Chief of the General Staff of Birdwood's army. It was a happy combination, for though Birdwood was a great leader of men he was less interested in organization, and White had a genius for it.

Between the wars

After the war White was Chief of the General Staff until his retirement in 1923. In the same year he was appointed Chairman of the newly constituted Commonwealth Public Service Board, supervising the transfer of departments from Melbourne to the new capital, Canberra. In 1928 he chose not to move to Canberra, declining a further term with the Public Service Board in order to remain close to his home and grazing property "Woodnaggerak" near Buangor, Victoria.

Second World War and death

In 1940, as Australia mobilised the 2nd AIF to take part in the Second World War, White was recalled to service at the age of 63, promoted to General, and re-appointed Chief of the General Staff. He would probably have become Australia's overall military commander in that war instead of Thomas Blamey had he not been aboard the Royal Australian Air Force plane which crashed in the Canberra air disaster on 13 August 1940, killing all aboard.

Monash described him as "far and away the ablest soldier Australia had ever turned out".

References

• Serle, Percival (1949). "White, Cyril Brudenell Bingham". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
• Derham, Rosemary, "The Silence Ruse", Cliffe Books 1998, ISBN 0 95853 691 0
• Biography - Australian War Memorial