John White (Surgeon-General)

1756 - 1832

BiographyJohn White was born about 1756 and trained during a time of improving ethical and clinical standards in medicine. He entered the Royal Navy on 26 June 1778 as third surgeon's mate on HMS WASP and received his diploma of the Company of Surgeons on 2 August 1781. The next five years of his naval service took him as far as the West Indies and India. On 26 June 1786 he became surgeon of the IRRESISTIBLE and four months later, he was appointed chief surgeon onboard the CHARLOTTE, sent to establish a convict settlement at Botany Bay. Thanks largely to White and nine other surgeons who accompanied the fleet, only forty out of more than 1,300 people died on the voyage.

White set up a portable canvas hospital at Sydney Cove and dealt with numerous outbreaks of scurvy and dysentery, a consequence of having minimal fresh provisions. White accompanied Governor Phillip on several expeditions and kept a journal in which he noted the colony's natural history and daily activities. His greatest crisis came in June 1790 when the Second Fleet arrived with 500 sick and dying people. In spite of insurmountable problems such as the lack of medicine and accommodation, White and his assistants managed to nurse more than half of them back to health. An almost identical crisis came with the arrival of the Third Fleet and 600 suffering convicts in September 1791. At the end of 1792, 436 had died.

White recommended the use of good wine mixed with essence of malt as a source of Vitamin C and like most doctors of the day, was a keen naturalist. He was Australia's first Doctor to direct the search for native plants as a way to protect the colonists against scurvy.

In December 1792, White applied for leave and commented on the strenuous lifestyle in Australia. In the meantime, he continued to pursue his interest in natural history and compiled numerous drawings over the next two years with the help of the convict artist Thomas Watling, assigned to him in October 1792. White was granted 100 acres, which he named Hamond Hill Farm, near the present day suburb of Leichhardt and another thirty acres at White Bay. He was eventually granted leave and sailed for England in December 1794, leaving behind a son, Andrew, by Rachel Turner and an adopted Aboriginal boy, Nanbaree.

In August, White resigned rather than return to NSW, and went on to serve on various ships during 1796 to 1799. In England around 1800 he married and reared four children, including his son Andrew from New South Wales. White was the surgeon at Sheerness dockyard and later at Chatham dockyard from September 1803 to January 1820. He retired on half-pay and died at Worthing on 20 February 1832, aged 75 he left an estate valued at £12,000.

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