General Sir Brudenell White - Anzac Centenary Victorian Government

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General Sir Brudenell White
Mark Derham
Cyril Brudenell Bingham White (1876–1940), known as Brudenell, is
simultaneously one of the most important and yet unknown figures in
Australian military history. In a military career spanning more than a quarter
of a century Brudenell established a professional record that was, at that time,
unequalled and became widely regarded in Australian and British military and
political circles as one of Australia’s greatest soldiers and one of the founders of
the Australian Imperial Force.
Cyril Brudenell Bingham White
KCB KCMG KCVO DSO
G e n e r a l S ir B r u d e n e l l Wh ite
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Brudenell was born at St Arnaud, Victoria, on 23 September 1876. He was
the seventh of eight children of John Warren White, stock agent and retired
army officer, and Maria (Mysie) Gibton. His paternal grandparents were Thomas
Warren White (Barrister-at-Law and at one time Crown Prosecutor for County
Leitrim1) and Elizabeth Persse of Roxborough, County Galway, Ireland, and
one of his aunts was ‘The Amma’, Maria Lucinda Beggs (née White).
John Warren White (1828–1918) had been an officer in the Rifle Brigade
and served in Canada before resigning and migrating to Australia in 1850,
arriving in the SS Lightning. At this time Ireland was still suffering from the
consequences of the Potato Famine and there seemed to be little hope for
the future. John Warren White, like many of his countrymen, decided to
leave Ireland and seek his fortune in a foreign land. His decision to come to
Australia was possibly made easier by the fact that his sister Maria Lucinda and
her husband had already emigrated to the Colony of Victoria where gold was
soon to be discovered.
John Warren White had only been in Victoria for a short time when he
found himself travelling to Ballarat with elements of the 40th Regiment.
The exact reason why he was with the 40th Regiment is unclear. In The
Silence Ruse, Brudenell’s daughter Rosemary Derham speculates that it may
have been due to either a call for officers or at the invitation of a friend.2
Riots had occurred on the gold fields as a result of the introduction of a new
mining licensing system, which angered the miners. Disenchanted miners,
chartists and radicals established the Ballarat Reform League to voice miners’
grievances and press for Parliamentary reform. The Governor, Sir Charles
Hotham, decided to restore order on the goldfields and despatched elements
of the 12th and 40th Regiments, along with detachments from HMS Electra
and HMS Fantome. On Sunday, 3 December 1854, the military and police
made a surprise attack on the miners who were barricaded in the Eureka
Stockade, which resulted in the deaths of thirty defenders and the removal
of the Southern Cross flag. John White’s exact role in this attack is unknown
but in view of his military background it is likely that he took an active part
in the attack on the stockade.3
The following year John White travelled to Eurambeen, in Western
Victoria, to stay with his sister Maria Lucinda and her husband Francis Beggs.
The Beggs family had immigrated to Australia in 1849 in the hope of making
sufficient money to retire in Ireland. They began sheep farming at Geelong and
later moved to Eurambeen. John White may have had similar intentions of
1 Burke’s Irish Family Records, Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd (ed), (London, UK, Burke’s Peerage Ltd,
1976), page 805.
2 Derham, The Silence Ruse, p. 119.
3 Bentley, Champion of Anzac, chapter 2.
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General Si r Brudenel l W hi t e
returning to Ireland but for now he was content to work for his brother-in-law
and learn all he could about sheep, cattle and crops.4 It was at Eurambeen that
he met Mysie (Maria) Gibton.
Maria (Mysie) Gibton was a daughter of Robert Nassau Gibton of
Tallaght, County Dublin, who with his family arrived in Melbourne on the
Afric in 1857. Mysie’s mother had died in 1850 and her father had decided
to leave Dublin and take his three daughters and two sons to the colonies.
Unfortunately for the family Robert Gibton became ill during the voyage and
died a month later in the family’s Collingwood home.5 Mysie Gibton’s uncle
had married Adelaide White, the sister of John White and Maria Lucinda
White. It was through this family connection in Ireland that Mysie Gibton was
able to secure the position of governess to the Beggs family, first in Geelong
and later at Eurambeen.6
Mysie Gibton’s personality and nature proved to be the ideal complement
to that of the tall, proud, fiery and aristocratic John White, six feet three in
his socks. She was slender and petite, about five-feet-four. Her diminutive
stature belied her strength of character and endurance. She was sympathetic,
compassionate and gentle. Being a deeply religious woman she disliked overt
displays of aggression. During her life she endured many hardships, but she
never lost her sense of proportion or dignity and always ensured her family
maintained the standards and level of behaviour appropriate to their class,
position and ancestry.
John Warren White and Mysie Gibton were married on 13 June 1860 at
St Stephen’s Church, Richmond. During the next few years the Whites
travelled around the Wimmera and Mallee regions of north-western Victoria.
This was a region of extremes, blazing hot summers and freezing winters.
They eventually found themselves at Lake Hindmarsh where they settled for
a period of three years. During this time they endured makeshift housing,
poor seasons and for at least two years of their stay they found themselves
faced with severe drought. At one stage John White rode four miles each day
to obtain water sufficient for their daily needs. In the years between 1865 and
1876 the White family lived an almost nomadic life moving across northwest Victoria.
In 1876 the White family settled in St Arnaud. The area around St Arnaud
was reasonably benign and was rich with tree-shaded, crystal-clear streams. This
was a sharp contrast to the desolate, dry and burning expanse of the Mallee to
Brudenell’s father, John Warren
White.
Brudenell’s mother, Mysie
White (née Gibton).
4 John White earned a small income from his estates in County Clare. In 1876 he arranged a mortgage on
these estates and continued to receive a small income. In 1912 the Bank of Victoria arranged the sale of the
estates to the tenants..
5Derham, The Silence Ruse, p. 119.
6 Ibid, p. 120.
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the north-west. In 1876 St Arnaud was a busy, bustling place. The County of
Kara Kara – with St Arnaud as its centre – was being opened up. It was a steady
gold producer and gaining recognition as fine for growing wheat.7
On 23 September Mysie White gave birth to Brudenell, her seventh child.
The members of the family at this time were Maud Letitia, John Warren, Dudley
Persse, Katherine Gertrude, and Mabel Elizabeth. Some eighteen months later,
Eustace Robert Nassau was born. In a short article for the Royal Historical
Society of Queensland, Norman Pixley mentions only seven children.8 This
discrepancy is possibly due to the death of a third child, Elizabeth, who died
some years before. Elizabeth was born after John Warren on 25 January 1865
and died at the age of 13 months at Eurambeen.9 The regular moves around
Victoria are illustrated by the places of birth of his children recorded in the
family bible.10
The early years
The four years spent in St Arnaud was a period of relative stability and
prosperity. John Warren White had established a business as a grain and wool
buyer and had interests in a number of other local businesses including Fry’s
Mills and the chaff mills in Queens Avenue. He was also keenly interested in
public affairs and was mayor of the town in 1878.11
The Whites were a close and loving family. Mysie had strong religious
views and provided religious instruction for her children. Brudenell cared
deeply for his siblings, in particular his younger brother, Eustace. Brudenell
developed a close bond with Eustace. They never argued, always defended each
other and were inseparable. On those few occasions when they were apart their
father would ask ‘where’s the other fellow?’12
John Warren White’s businesses in St Arnaud suffered badly in the early
1880s. He decided to move the family to Queensland which was, he had
heard, booming. So in 1881 the family moved to Queensland and lived on
pastoral stations in the Gympie, Charters Towers and Gladstone areas before
settling at Clayfield, Brisbane. Although he was unsuccessful as a pastoralist,
in 1885 John became the first president of the Brisbane Stock Exchange. There
were some years of prosperity, but by the time Brudenell was 15, the family’s
circumstances were again dire.
7 St Arnaud Mercury, 11 July 1925; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2 p. 82.
8 Pixley, ‘John Warren White and Family’, p. 13.
9Derham, The Silence Ruse, p. 121.
10Maude Letitia (Eurambeen, Beaufort, Victoria), John Warren (Tullyrea, Horsham, Victoria), Elizabeth
Gibton (Tullyrea, Horsham, Victoria), Dudley Persse (Minnieboro, Glenorchy), Katherine Gertrude
(Minnieboro, Glenorchy), Mabel Elizabeth (Maudvale, Glenorchy), Cyril Brudenell Bingham (St Arnaud,
Victoria) and Eustace Robert Nassau (St Arnaud, Victoria).
11 St Arnaud Times, 21 February 1921; Ethel White’s scrapbook.
12 Quoted in Bean, Two Men I Knew, p. 80.
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Brudenell was five when the family moved to Queensland. His keen
intelligence was clear from early childhood. He attended the local State School
at Clayfield and then went to the Normal School (Teachers’ Training School)
at the corner of Edward and Adelaide Streets in Brisbane. By the sacrifice of his
brother John (Jack) Warren White, he attended for one year at Major Boyd’s
‘Eton’ School, at Nundah, now a suburb of Brisbane. He left there at 15 with
a prize for shorthand.
A bank clerk
Brudenell had wanted to be a barrister, like his grandfather, but at the age of
16 took a job as a clerk with the Australian Joint Stock Bank, and studied in
his spare time. He did not cost his father a penny from that moment. His first
salary was £1 per week. As we will see, he was later transferred to Gympie,
then Charters Towers where his salary lifted to £120 a year, about one third of
which he sent to his mother.
His care for his mother was as great as her influence on him. Later he recalled:
Just before Christmas my mother broke the news that I was to be a bank
clerk. It nearly broke my heart, because I wanted to be a barrister like my
grandfather … my mother simply went to an old friend of the family,
John Palmer Abbott __ he was an inspector of the Union Bank … and
said: ‘You’ve got to take Brudenell into your bank’ … and he very gravely
and courteously replied: ‘very well Mrs White, if those are your orders!’13
Brudenell was determined to continue his education as far as possible and
become a barrister like his grandfather. Each day he devoted a period of time
both before and after work to furthering his studies. He would rise at 6 am
and undertake his studies until 8 am at which time he rode from his home in
Clayfield to the bank in Brisbane. Each evening he would return, sometimes
very late if he had to work back, and then at 9 pm he would continue his
studies until midnight, reading everything that he could lay his hands on.
Major Boyd, his former headmaster, suggested many books and subjects to
broaden Brudenell’s knowledge, and generally guided him in his studies. He
maintained this lifestyle diligently over the next three years.
Brudenell developed a quiet, gentle, courteous and unassuming nature.
He was often embarrassed by outward displays of aggression; even his father’s
fiery temper occasionally caused embarrassment. In later years he wrote:
To be gentle, thoughtful and kindly are virtues that you have, and which
will take you farther and make the journey easier than anything that is
assumed or cultivated.14
13 White reported in the Melbourne Herald, 16 March 1940; op. cit Bentley, Champion of Anzac, Ch 2.
14 Letter to his daughter Rosemary, 1934, quoted in Derham, The Silence Ruse, p. 126.
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Brudenell’s devotion to his mother had also imbued him with a deep
respect and admiration for women. At one point in his childhood some nuns
provided his educational instruction. Brudenell admired their kind nature and
devotion to duty and developed a great respect for them.15 Much later he
spoke publicly of the influence of women on men, and in a way that must have
reflected his own upbringing, saying that:
...again and again one sees a whole household of men ruled by a small
woman, whose only weapons are understanding, a quiet determination,
and, perhaps, occasionally a few judicious tears ... If a woman’s children
are born early in married life she comes to regard her husband much in
the nature of a grown-up child – someone to be understood, humoured
and firmly dealt with. The maternal instinct comes to embrace all
her affections as time goes on, and although there may be emotional
moments when she is more a woman than a mother it is that maternal
instinct - to care, to look after and to protect – which will create the most
binding ties... Woman in her maturity is conscious of many discrepancies
in man to which she never gives utterance, and many lovable qualities
that, with due diplomacy, may be trained in the way they ought to go.
And she continues to rule through her influence – in other words, her
inborn subtlety, her rod of tears and her feminine instinct, knowing that
her whole strength lies in her apparent weakness.16
His self-effacing, easy-going nature was underpinned by a set of strong and
unwavering Christian values. These teachings provided him with a tremendous
self-discipline and a resolute sense of duty and honour that shaped his ideals
and attitudes throughout his life. Brudenell also became imbued with his
mother’s strength of character and determination. These facets of his character
and his ideals were explicitly expressed in his early diary entries:
Mottos for 1895
Have life ___ see everything
Never tell a lie
Have your own opinion
Never drink or swear
Guard against immorality
Be straightforward and not afraid of anyone
Be determined, if you say a thing do it
Do all work well.17
16 Unattributed press report, about 1934, Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2, p. 72.
17 Diary Entry, 1 January 1895, White Papers, AWM, 3DRL6549, item 1; Derham The Silence Ruse, p. 129;
Bentley, Champion of Anzac, chapter 2.
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While working in Brisbane, Brudenell received
his first taste of military life. Richard Dowse, an older
colleague and friend of Brudenell’s, was an enthusiastic
volunteer soldier. Dowse was originally from England and
his eagerness resulted in a rapid rise through the ranks.
At the time he met Brudenell he was adjutant of the
Queensland Volunteer Rifles. Dowse asked Brudenell to
accompany him on a military camp. Brudenell enjoyed
the camp and retained fond memories of it. However, he
did not at this stage consider taking up a military career.18
In 1895 Brudenell was transferred to the Bank branch
at Gympie. This provided him with a significant financial
remuneration by increasing his salary from £52 to £120
per annum, and allowed him to send a third of his weekly
income to his mother, engage the local schoolmaster as a
tutor so that he could continue his studies, and pay for
his upkeep. Brudenell was still determined to become a
barrister and with the realisation that this would require
a significant capital outlay he began to set aside a small
weekly sum.19
Brudenell White, aged
about 18.
Military service begins
At Gympie Brudenell made friends with Thomas William Glasgow (later
Major-General Sir William Glasgow) who worked at the Queensland National
Bank. Brudenell wrote:
… a young chap named Bill Glasgow was a clerk in the Joint Stock Bank
in Gympie … I was there for the Union – and we had no clearing house.
I had to deliver the cheques around the town which was all up hill and
down. So Bill and I hit on a plan whereby one day he would take all the
uphill deliveries and the next day it would be my turn. It was he who
aroused my interest in the Militia and we became trainees together in the
Wide Bay Regiment.20
While Glasgow may have aroused Brudenell’s dormant interest in the
militia, his provisional commission was due to the efforts of C B Steele, a local
mining surveyor and a friend, who also happened to be the local commander
of the Wide Bay Regiment. Brudenell was provisionally commissioned into
the 2nd Queensland (Wide Bay and Burnett) Regiment on 7 October 1896.
18 Bean, Two Men I Knew, p. 82.
19 Ibid., p. 81.
20 White reported in the Melbourne Herald, 16 March 1940.
33
Late in 1897 the opportunity arose for Brudenell to attempt the
officers’ appointment examination for the Queensland Defence Forces. The
examination that Brudenell was now preparing to sit normally required twelve
months of intensive study. He did not have this time and had to accomplish
all the required study in six weeks. He obtained leave from the Bank and set
about preparing for the examinations. His old headmaster, Major Boyd, and
Major John Byron, who was at the time acting Commander of the Queensland
Permanent Artillery, coached him.
One week before the examination Brudenell began to have doubts and
told his mother, ‘I cannot do the work ___ there just is not the time’. ‘Try for
my sake’, she replied, ‘I feel sure you’ll succeed’.21 Brudenell attempted the
examination and passed, 3rd overall, and 2nd highest for lieutenants, with a
score of 77%.22
Brudenell visited his family for a brief period at Christmas 1897. On 25
February 1898 he left to return to Gympie and then went on to Gladstone.
His brother Eustace went to the railway station with him. This would be the
last time that they would see each other. In April Brudenell was transferred
to Charters Towers and it was here, in December, that he received news of his
brother’s death. He recorded in his diary:
At 12.50 on 14 December 1898 I received a wire from Dudley saying
that he had received word that Eust was killed on Merivale Station,
Mitchell, on the morning of Dec.13th by a fall from a horse; the poor
dear little chap broke his neck, how little I thought when I casually
said Goodbye to him on 27 December 1897 that it would be goodbye
forever.
Oh for the touch of a vanished hand
Or the sound of a voice that is still’.23
This was a considerable blow for Brudenell and he was deeply saddened
by the news. He would often remember his brother in the years to come and
wore a small silver ring, which his brother had given him, on the little finger
of his left hand.
Brudenell had recently applied for leave from the bank so that he could
attempt to join the Queensland Permanent Artillery. The day after he heard
of his brother’s death he received news that his leave had been granted. He left
Charters Towers on 18 December 1898 and travelled to Brisbane first by train
21 Quoted in Bean, Two Men I Knew, p. 82; cf. Derham, Silent Ruse, p. 131.
22 Diary Entry, 12 December 1897, White Papers, AWM, 3DRL6549, item 3.
23 Diary Entry, 14 December 1898, White Papers, AWM, 3DRL6549, item 3; Bentley, Champion of Anzac,
Ch. 2, p. 64; The last two lines are from Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), Break, Break, Break, a lyric poem
completed about 1834, which centres on his grief over the death of his best friend, Arthur Hallam.
34
to Townsville and then by steamer. Captain Victor Sellheim, who would later
achieve prominence in the AIF, accompanied him to Brisbane.24
Brudenell’s father and brother Jack were waiting at the dock when he
arrived in Brisbane on 22 December 1898. It was a sad Christmas for the
White family – every member of the family was deeply saddened by the loss of
Eustace. Mysie White made special arrangements for his body to be collected
from Merivale Station and returned to the family. On 9 February 1899 Eustace
White was buried at Toowong Cemetery.25
After Christmas Brudenell visited Major Byron, who was temporarily
commanding the Queensland Permanent Artillery. Byron informed Brudenell
that on 23 January 1899 an examination would be held for appointment to
the Permanent Staff. Brudenell decided to attempt the examination and on 27
January 1899 received a letter from Byron requesting that he report for duty
the next day. Brudenell achieved the necessary score for an appointment to the
Permanent Staff, although he needed to improve his French.
On 7 June 1899 Brudenell was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the
Queensland regiment of the Royal Australian Artillery. In August, while he
was waiting for his first posting, his sister Mabel was married to Lieutenant
Colonel Kenneth Hutchison at St John’s in Brisbane. In November Brudenell
gained his first intimation of his destination. ‘The Major’, Brudenell wrote in
his diary, ‘told me I would probably spend Christmas on Thursday Island’.26
Brudenell’s appointment to the permanent staff marked a new chapter in
his life. During these formative years Brudenell’s family had taught him the
importance of service, hard work and good manners and like many members
of his social class he displayed an excessive politeness that would be a fondly
remembered trait in later years. When he became chairman of the New
Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency in July 1928 Brudenell was responsible
for approving loans and those whom he rejected often left smiling.27 ‘I’ve come
out empty-handed’, said one, ‘but I couldn’t be disappointed. It rather made
me feel foolish to have asked him’.28 Another applicant said, ‘I never had “No”
said to me so nicely’.29
Brudenell has been mostly presented, particularly by Charles Bean, as
modest, unassuming and without marked aggression or ambition. However, at
an early age he confessed in his diary to certain ambitions. Like many idealistic
young men he dreamed of making a mark upon the world and of being a
24 Diary Entry, 22 December 1898, White Papers, AWM, 3DRL6549, item 3; Bentley, Champion of Anzac,
Ch. 2, p. 65.
25 Diary Entry, 9 February 1899.
26 Diary Entry, 11 November 1899.
27 Diary Entry, 1 July 1928,
29 Ibid.
35
person of some importance, if not greatness. On his twenty-fourth birthday
Brudenell wrote in his diary:
In the ambitious dreams of my boyhood I had pictured myself as
a person who would be of great importance at that age and I’m a
somewhat insignificant and more or less dull subaltern of Austn [sic]
Artillery. ‘Oh fate hast thou any prizes in store for me – something to
preserve me from the stale, flat and unprofitable plane of mediocrity…30
He was, despite the serious tone of his diary entries, of entirely normal
humour and temperament. Much later he told of a happening when at Gympie
in about 1895 or 1896. The son of the Manager of the Bank Branch (in which
Brudenell worked) lived with his parents on the Bank premises. One bank halfholiday, the boy, having been presented with several large sheets of coloured
figures representing the soldiers of the British Army, got into the bank proper
and, borrowing a pot of glue and a nice big handy book, proceeded to paste the
paper soldiers very neatly up and down the columns. When Brudenell came to
work the next day he found his ledger recording the business of half Gympie’s
prominent citizens nicely decorated with the life guards, hussars, dragoons and
various other colourful soldiery. ‘There’s no doubt about the British Soldier’,
said Brudenell before proceeding to make out an entirely new ledger, ‘He
certainly sticks to the job’. His intervention saved the boy a hiding.31
In 1900–01, Brudenell performed garrison duty on Thursday Island. With
the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, he became a
founding member of the new Australian Military Forces. On 18 February
1902 he embarked for service in South Africa with the 1st Battalion, Australian
Commonwealth Horse. The unit engaged in minor operations in the western
Transvaal and Bechuanaland; hostilities ended in June and Brudenell wrote:
‘I would have liked to see a little fighting’. Sailing for Australia next month
in the poorly equipped Drayton Grange, he went among a group of mutinous
soldiers, who threatened to ‘toss him in a blanket’, but he placated them.
In 1903 Brudenell attended a gunnery course at the School of Artillery in
Sydney. It was a long and arduous course, he worked hard, and when the results
were announced he finished at the top of the course with a score of 90%.
A staff officer and marriage
In January 1904 he was detached from his duties with the artillery in
Victoria and appointed aide-de-camp to Major General Sir Edward Hutton,
general officer commanding the Australian Military Forces (AMF). His
30 Diary Entry, 23 September 1900.
31 Reported in the press (probably the Courier-Mail, Brisbane, circa 21 March 1940); Ethel White’s scrap book,
volume2, p.98.
36
one-year association with Hutton, during which
the two formed a lasting friendship, marked the
beginning of Brudenell’s formative years as a staff
officer.32 Promoted temporary captain, he travelled
extensively with the G.O.C. and learned much about
the state and organisation of the infant Australian
Army. Hutton recommended that he attend the Staff
College at Camberley, and supported his application.
After General Hutton returned to England in
late 1904, Brudenell returned to Army Headquarters
in Melbourne. In 1905 he continued his studies
so that his educational qualifications would be
adequate to satisfy the Minister if he were to be
appointed to the Staff College. He also studied
French and mathematics. In June 1905 there were
military examinations for him in Melbourne. When
the results were published in July he received 80% in
three subjects and 100% for his tactics paper.33 The
Military Board that was established on the departure
of General Hutton took some time to consider,
and ultimately approve, his attendance at the Staff
College at Camberley in England.
Meanwhile, on 15 November 1905 at Christ Church, South Yarra,
Brudenell married Ethel Davidson, the eldest of nine children of Walter Henry
Davidson and Clamina Beggs of Allanvale near Stawell, and later of Coliban
Park, near Kyneton, Victoria.
Ethel was born in Toorak on 14 November 1878. At the time of her birth,
Walter Henry Davidson was managing Alice Downs, near Blackall in Western
Queensland. Some seven years later, Walter Henry sold out his interest in
Alice Downs and bought Coliban Park, in the Castlemaine district, where the
family lived for the next 31 years.
At about the time he was preparing for his wedding, the Military Board
finally approved Brudenell’s attendance at the Camberley Staff College, and
he became the first AMF officer to attend. In late November, after a short
honeymoon, he and Ethel boarded the new P&O ship Marmora and began
their five-week journey to England.
He began the course at Camberley with relatively little regimental
experience and limited active service. That he graduated well up in his class-
Brudenell White, November
1904.
32 General Hutton gave Brudenell several beautifully bound books as a parting present. These included the
complete works of Shakespeare and two books by Samuel Smiles LL D, On Character and Self-Help!
37
Brudenell and Ethel’s wedding
party, 15 November 1905:
Lieutenant Long-Innes,
Beatrice Davidson, Ethel and
Brudenell White, Ruth Quick
and Major Balmain.
list was testimony to his ability and capacity for hard work, traits which
increasingly brought him to the notice of his superiors. Brudenell spent two
years at Camberley (1906–7). Their first child, Margaret Clamina Brudenell,
was born there on 23 March 1907. Two of Brudenell’s fellow students at
Camberley were afterwards famous in the AIF, Duncan Glasfurd, a Scottish
officer, and John Gellibrand, a Tasmanian officer of the British Army, and later
an outstanding leader.34 During Brudenell’s second year in the Staff College its
commandant was Brigadier-General Henry Wilson, who was to become Chief
of the Imperial General Staff for the last year of World War I. Brudenell was
one of his best pupils. ‘If there are any more like you in Australia, young man,’
Wilson once said to him, ‘send them over here – we can do with them’.35
Brudenell was practically born on a horse. Horses had always been a part
of his life and riding was his only known sporting recreation. Ethel provides
some idea of Brudenell’s experiences during this period at the Staff College:
Brudenell used to bicycle to the College for lectures, also all round
the country, mapping out the district and working out all the military
schemes that the training involved … It was expected of officers at the
Staff College that they should ride in the drag-hunt during the Winter
months of the hunting seasons. Brudenell had to keep a horse and a part34 Bean, Two Men I Knew, p 84.
35 Ibid..
38
time groom. The horse was stabled somewhere
in the village … the Australian Government
I think allowed him part of the upkeep. It
was only a mediocre hunter, but being a good
rider, this was soon recognised by his brother
officers at the College and he was often lent
good horses and also some that their owners,
not being good riders, wanted him to try out
for them … He only had one fall during the
two seasons, his horse fell but he was not hurt.
I was very nervous while he was out and was
thankful to see him come home unhurt.36
British officers generally placed great faith on a
man’s riding ability and it was frequently regarded
as a test of character. Even Brudenell believed that:
… he could tell clearly as noonday the
determination of a man by watching him at
the hunt. There was the man who set his jaw
and went for it – who, if he had a good horse
always led. Always behind him there would
be a man who went where that man went;
rode close behind him over the fences; took
the jumps where he took them. The front of the field would consist of
these leaders, each with a small bunch of followers – both sorts on the
best horses. Then a gap. Next came a similar lot of leaders, determined
to go on, but on poorer horses. After them was a similar attendance of
men hanging on to them – also on second-rate horses. Then another gap.
Lastly a third bunch who were not in the hunt for the love of it at all,
but because it was the thing to do.37
Brudenell with his dog Puck at
Geraghmeen, Camberley.
The view of some of his British superiors was that an officer of Brudenell’s
quality would be wasted in the comparatively small Australian service; and,
while he and his wife and baby were on their way back to Melbourne, an
enquiry was sent from the War Office to the Defence Department in
Melbourne saying that if Australian ministers agreed it would appoint him
as General Staff Officer, third grade, at headquarters, with a Colonelcy pay of
£500 per annum. There were, however, some difficulties with this proposal.
First, Brudenell was a young officer and could not, with fairness to others, be
36 Ethel White’s memories quoted in Derham, The Silence Ruse, pp. 191–2.
37 Quoted in Bean, Two Men I Knew, pp. 84–5.
39
so quickly raised in rank in Australia; and secondly Colonel William Bridges,
Chief of Intelligence, under whom on arrival Brudenell was placed, insisted
that he could not be spared unless the War Office would first send a General
Staff Officer to Melbourne to replace him. The War Office agreed.
On his return to Australia, Brudenell was promoted Captain and, after
some months as Director of Military Operations under Bridges, he returned
to England on a four-year appointment.38 He and Ethel and little Margaret left
for England aboard the P&O Steamer India. The Westminster Gazette noted
their arrival thus:
Captain C.B. White of the Royal Australian Artillery, who is a passenger
by the incoming mail steamer from Melbourne, may be pardoned if he
feels just a little proud. For some time past the Imperial War Office and
the Commonwealth Military Department have been struggling for his
services, and the former has triumphed to the extent of securing him for
the next three years. The Captain served in South Africa, and afterwards
came to England for a course of training in the Staff College, where his
abilities were so marked that he was offered a tempting appointment
to remain here. But Mr Deakin’s government strongly objected to this
piece of activity on the part of Mr Haldane’s Department. After much
correspondence, however, Mr Deakin has consented to lend Captain
White to England for three years, and Mr Haldane is sending out
Captain Wilson to replace him for that period in Australia.39
The service on which he now entered was largely that of training and
lecturing to British regular divisions in Great Britain and Ireland.40 His posting
was to the Directorate of Military Operations at the War Office. Staff officers
within the Directorate were busy reorganising the Territorial Force, which had
been in existence for only a few short months, into regionally-based divisional
formations. On his first day Brudenell began helping with this task and as a
consequence gained considerable experience in the planning and organisation
of divisional forces as well as knowledge of citizen forces.41
Along with the reorganisation of the Territorial Force Brudenell had to
undertake the usual round of military duties. He visited various military
establishments and took part in various staff rides (these were tactical
exercises without troops used for training staff officers). His attachment to
the War Office gave him experience in handling large forces and developed
38 In The Age, 12 May 1908, it was noted that the salary offered was nearly double that which he received from
the Commonwealth.
39 The Westminster Gazette, Friday 30 October 1908; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2, p. 131.
40 Bean, Two Men I Knew, p 85.
41White wrote a number of reports on the reorganisation of the Territorial Force. NAA, MP 84/1, file
1894/6/104; Dr JohnBentley, A Book Proposal, General White and the Making of an Army, 2005.
40
his skills in planning and administration;
it also introduced him to officers with
whom he would later work. He met
with many influential men, such as
Viscount Haldane, Sir John French, Sir
Ian Hamilton and Colonel Dobell (a
Canadian) who later became General Sir
Charles Dobell during the First World
War. It also deepened his commitment to
the British Empire.
The need for trained officers in
Australia led to his early recall, in August
1911, and to his appointment on 1
January 1912 as Director of Military
Operations at Army Headquarters, Melbourne. This position was the chief
assistant to the Chief of the General Staff, Brigadier-General Joseph Gordon.
Brudenell had been promoted to Major the previous year. He bought a house
at Avoca Street, South Yarra, called Alton, where he, Ethel, and their young
family of Margaret Clamina, James Edward Brudenell (b. 22 April 1910)
and Patrick Fitzmaurice Brudenell (b. 18 February 1914) lived until shortly
before he left for the War. In December 1914, Ethel and the children went to
Eurambeen to live with Theodore Beggs (Ethel’s uncle Tedo and Brudenell’s
first-cousin). Tedo was living alone as his mother, the Amma (Maria Lucinda
Beggs), had died in July 1914, and he welcomed the idea of his niece coming
to keep house for him.
Captain Brudenell White
(second from left), after
returning to Australia, on an
Easter encampment, 25 April
1908, with Inspector Generals
and Headquarters staff in
South Australia.
Planning for War
In his new post Brudenell was responsible for developing strategic policy and
administering the military system recently formulated by Colonel Legge and
Lord Kitchener. Brudenell maintained and updated Bridges’s mobilisation
plans for home defence and supported the concept of a citizen force. Although
pleased by the depth of Imperial sentiment among politicians, especially in the
Labor Party, he was frustrated by the refusal of successive defence ministers to
allow contingency planning for war between Britain and Germany. This was
because the scheme which the government had charged Bridges with devising
was totally lacking in one crucial provision. Not by Bridges’s wish but by
the Government’s deliberate policy, the provisional arrangements were strictly
limited to the defence of Australia within her own territory. Although the
possibility of war between Britain and Germany was vaguely apprehended
by many Australians, it was very present in the consciousness of the staffs on
whom the task of defending Australia hinged.
41
Brudenell was aware that a force might have to be sent away at very short
notice. The realisation that it would have to be hastily improvised and sent
to face a highly organised and trained opponent without a thought having
been previously given to its needs in arms, ammunition, training, transport,
medical arrangements, staff, command, or any other essential – such thought
had indeed been expressly forbidden – was almost intolerable. Brudenell asked
again and again. He begged Millen, when he was Minister for Defence, to let
him work out such a scheme. He asked Pearce, who was Minister for Defence
from June 1910 to June 1913.
In November 1912, however, Pearce approved talks with New Zealand
representatives on common action to be taken if either country were attacked.
At a meeting between Major General Alexander Godley, the New Zealand Chief
of the General Staff, and the Australian chief, Brigadier General Joseph Maria
Gordon, the potential for a war between European powers was discussed. They
recommended the General Staffs of Australia and New Zealand begin detailed
planning for the organisation of a composite division of 18 000 men. Australia
would supply two-thirds of this composite force. Pearce gave the responsibility
for the planning and organisation to Brudenell, who was ordered to draw up
plans and to keep the notes and details of the proposed expeditionary force
strictly to himself. Brudenell compiled specifications for raising, equipping,
training and despatching the Australian portion of such a force.
War and the mobilisation of the AIF
By late June 1914, the Chief of the General Staff, Brigadier-General Gordon,
had retired. His successor, Colonel Legge, was en route from England. Bridges
was on an inspection tour in Queensland. Brudenell was made acting Chief of
the General Staff, pending Colonel Legge’s return. The assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria took place on 28 June. Brudenell’s war began on
30 July 1914 with a message from the Commander of the Australian Naval
Squadron, Rear Admiral Sir George Patey, who had just decoded a communiqué
from the Imperial Government warning of the imminence of war. This message, a
pre-arranged signal agreed to by the Australian Government at the 1907 Imperial
Conference, advised the Government to begin preliminary mobilisation. The
message had also been sent to the Minister for Defence, Senator Edward Millen,
but had been incorrectly decoded to read ‘Adoption precautionary stage’. As a
consequence, Millen believed it was an answer to an inquiry and disregarded it.42
On that day, it should be added, the chief interest of the Australian Government
was the forthcoming federal election, which was called as a result of a double
dissolution of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
42 Bentley, Champion of Anzac, p.142.
42
On 1 August Brudenell met with Millen and urged him to authorise the
preliminary mobilisation that had been recommended in the communiqué
from London on 30 July. Millen was reluctant to act without conferring with
the Prime Minister, Joseph Cook. This meeting left Brudenell feeling frustrated
and he decided to talk to the Attorney General, Sir William Irvine, in the hope
that he could enlist his aid. Brudenell indicated that Australia was probably
the only part of the Empire where preliminary mobilisation had not yet been
adopted. On 2 August, on Irvine’s advice, Millen agreed to sanction precautions
for the defence of Australia and to rely on Cook to confirm his action later.43
The Federal Executive Council assembled in Melbourne on 3 August to
discuss the current crisis and what aid should be given to Britain.44 Although a
sizeable military force existed within Australia, the Defence Act 1903 forbade the
government from despatching its forces outside Australia. The Prime Minister
asked if any contingency plans existed for sending Australian troops overseas.
Brudenell explained that a cooperative study undertaken with New Zealand
had proposed a composite Australian and New Zealand infantry division.
Under this proposal Australia was to supply two-thirds of the force, which
was approximately 12 000 men. New Zealand would supply the remainder of
the force. Brudenell ventured to suggest that a contingent of this size could be
ready for embarkation in six weeks.45
Cook asked why Australia’s contribution had been limited to 12 000
men. After some consideration Brudenell advised that when compared with
Australia’s contribution to the recent South African War, Australia’s resources
could easily maintain a commitment of 12 000 men.46 There had been reports,
albeit false, that Canada had offered Britain 30 000 men. Cook was eager
to ensure that Australia made a comparable offer. Cook thought that an
appropriate contribution would therefore be 20 000 men.47
The Federal Council asked Brudenell whether or not it was feasible
for Australia to raise a divisional formation of 20 000 men, and what time
frame was required in order to have the division ready for embarkation.
Brudenell responded by pointing out that his study had been restricted
to 12 000 men. At that time Australia had not attempted to organise a
divisional formation, but Brudenell believed the task could be accomplished
in approximately six weeks.48
43 Bean, Two Men I Knew, pp. 91–2.
44 Sydney Morning Herald, 4 August 1914; Bentley, Champion of Anzac, p. 144.
45 ‘Origin of the AIF’, Answer by Brudenell White to C.E.W. Bean, 1 October 1919, Bean Papers, Australian
War Memorial (AWM) 3DRL6673, item 153; Copy also on file National Archives of Australia (NAA),
A6006/1, file 1914/8/23; Bentley, Champion of Anzac, ch 6, p 144.
46 Ibid.
47 Scott, Australia During the War, p. 11.
48 ‘Origin of the AIF’, Answer by Brudenell White to C.E.W. Bean, 1 October 1919, Bean Papers, Australian
War Memorial (AWM) 3DRL6673, item 153.
43
Brudenell was asked to draft a telegram to the British Government and
this was sent immediately without any changes. It stated:
In the event of war the Government [of Australia] is prepared to
place the vessels of the Australian Navy under the control of the
British Admiralty when desired. It is further prepared to despatch an
expeditionary force of 20,000 men of any suggested composition to any
destination desired by the Home Government, the Force to be at the
complete disposal of the Home Government. The cost of despatch and
maintenance will be borne by this [i.e. the Australian] Government.49
During a press conference held after this meeting, Millen stated that
the Australian contingent would not be drawn from the Australian Military
Forces. He pointed out that the Defence Act specifically stated ‘members of
the defence forces … shall not be required, unless they voluntarily agree to
do so, to serve beyond the limits of the Commonwealth, and those of any
territory under the authority of the Commonwealth’.50
In the absence of Bridges and Legge it fell to Brudenell to work on the
organisational plans. His diaries indicate that he worked day and night during
the raising of the force.51 At 9:00 am (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on
5 August 1914 Australia found itself in a state of war with Germany.52 Bridges
arrived in Melbourne that day and at 1:00 pm held his first meeting with Millen.
Bridges advised Millen to appoint a General Officer Commanding (GOC) to
command the force and recommended Major-General Sir Edward Hutton for
the position. Millen listened but did not commit himself to a decision. Instead
he asked Bridges to acquaint himself with the draft plans that Brudenell had
formulated. Bridges met with Millen again the following day and during the
discussions again proposed that Hutton be appointed as GOC. Millen vetoed
the proposal to appoint Hutton and instead gave Bridges a memorandum
requesting that Bridges himself organise the Australian expeditionary force.53
One of the first steps that Bridges took was to appoint Brudenell as his
Chief of Staff. Indeed it might be said the Brudenell chose himself, for it
was his pre-war contingency plan that provided the basis for the Australian
Imperial Force. The mobilisation plans were his and his alone, kept secret
by him. Bridges and Brudenell worked closely to create the force and to
establish administrative arrangements to preserve its separate identity within
49 see Bean, Official History, vol. 1, pp. 289; and Bentley, Champion of Anzac, Ch 6 p 144–5.
50 Sydney Morning Herald, 4 August 1914; Bentley, Champion of Anzac, Ch 6 p 144–5.
51 Diary Entries, August–October 1914, White Papers, AWM, 3DRL6549, item 22; Bentley, Champion of
Anzac, p 144–5.
52 The British Declaration of War was made at 2300 hours Zulu (Greenwich Meantime) on 4 August 1914.
53 Bean, Official History, vol. 1, pp. 28, 32; See also Verney, The Army High Command, p. 233; CoulthardClark, A Heritage of Spirit, p. 117; Bentley, Champion of Anzac, p. 144–5.
44
the British Army. At this stage Brudenell’s
influence was substantial. He designed
the arrangements for the recruiting of
the force, designed the structure, and
selected key people. In addition he drew
up the charter that guided the Australian
Imperial Force throughout the rest of the
war. These arrangements, structures, and
principles became the foundations not
only for the organisational culture of the
Australian Imperial Force, but also for
the Australian military culture that would
develop as a consequence.54
An instance of his influence on the
selection of key men was given by him
many years later. He later recounted:55
Caption
Never shall I forget John Gellibrand’s first meeting with General Bridges.
On the outbreak of the Great War. Gelly, as a retired British Army
captain, volunteered his services in Tasmania, but met some difficulty in
obtaining employment. So I obtained the permission of Bridges to send
for him. I told him to come at once. I think he took it too literally. He
arrived a few minutes after the boat from Launceston tied up at the wharf
wearing the coat in which he had been spraying his apple-trees, and a tie
of scarecrow green and he hadn’t bothered to shave. When the General
saw him he got the shock of his life, but merely grunted after Gelly had
left and said ‘very well, then, put him on!’ And that is how Sir John
Gellibrand, the very great soldier, joined the original 1st divisional staff!
Brudenell White and staff at
the Victoria Barracks,
19 October 1914.
Brudenell and Bridges met the Defence Minister almost daily during
the initial period and responded to the cables that arrived from the British
Government. The British Government cabled its acceptance of the Australian
offer on 6 August and requested that the contingent be ‘despatched as soon
as possible’.56 This communiqué did not, however, provide an indication of
how the Australian contingent was to be organised. In the initial offer to the
War Office Brudenell had implicitly recommended that Australia organise its
contingent as a divisional formation. Brudenell now cabled the War Office and
asked if it wished the Australian contingent to be organised as a division or if
they preferred some other composition.57
54 Bentley, Champion of Anzac, Ch. 16.
55 The Herald, Melbourne, 16 March 1940; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2 p. 115b.
56 Bean, Official History, vol. 1, p. 29; Bentley, Champion of Anzac, Ch 6 p 144–5.
57 Bentley, Champion of Anzac, p 144–5.
45
A souvenir of the victory of
HMAS Sydney on 9 November
1914.
Agreement was reached with the British
War Office as to the formation, and Bridges and
Brudenell were, on 8 August, able to present Millen
with a detailed plan. The revised plan proposed the
formation of an Australian infantry division and a
light horse brigade.58 The division was the smallest
formation to contain units of all arms (infantry,
cavalry, artillery and engineers) and to maintain any
semblance of national identity. It was the largest
formation mentioned on the Australian establishment
and Australian military authorities had never before
organised or commanded such a large body of troops.
Under the 1914 establishment a division consisted
of 18 027 men while a light horse brigade (including
support units) had 1967, a total of 19 994 men in all,
and close to the figure laid down by Cook at the first
Cabinet meeting.59
The formations were recruited on a territorial
basis, a system retained until the Armistice and the
strongest factor making for esprit de corps in the
AIF. Enlistment began on 10 August, and within
six weeks 20 000 men were clothed, equipped and
partially trained. By any standard it was a remarkable
achievement.60
The Australian Imperial Force, or AIF as it quickly
became known, sailed from Western Australia on 1
November 1914. Bridges and his staff were aboard
the Orvieto, a fine Orient liner. The convoy was
escorted by four Cruisers of the Australian, British
and Japanese navies, including HMAS Sydney. The
danger to the convoy was the German cruiser the
Emden, engaged in raiding in the Indian Ocean. On 9
November 1914, just after passing the Cocos Islands,
she was sighted and the Sydney was despatched to
engage with her. The Emden was driven ashore and
her crew, including her Captain, von Müller, and Prince Franz Joseph of
Hohenzollern, were taken aboard the Orvieto.
58 Mobilisation, AWM25, 495/1, p. 33; Bentley, Champion of Anzac, ‘ p.148.
59 Bentley, Champion of Anzac, ‘ p 148.
60 Pedersen, P A, Monash as Military Commander, Melbourne University Press, 1985, p. 42.
46
Caption
Anzac Cove
Gallipoli
By December the first contingent of the AIF was training in Egypt. With
Bridges, Brudenell planned the landing of the 1st Australian Division at Gaba
Tepe, while expressing the view that the total force to be used in the assault on
Gallipoli was inadequate. In the confusion of the landing on 25 April 1915,
he accompanied Bridges on his rapid tour of AIF positions and helped to pull
together the disorganised threads of command and communications. He was
‘the perfect complement to Bridges’ until the latter’s death in May.
On 30 May 1915, a little more than a month after the landing, Brudenell
was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his exceptional efforts
as a staff officer and on 27 July he was promoted to full Colonel. Brudenell
was twice mentioned in despatches for his work at Gallipoli. He assisted with
planning of a number of tactical operations. The most successful of these was
the Battle of Lone Pine.
Brudenell and Col NR Howse
(subsequently VC) in White
Gully, August 1915.
47
Brudenell in his bunker at
Gallipoli, May 1915.
Brudenell (at left) recuperating
in Cairo, 12 September 1915.
Towards the end of August Brudenell was stricken with dysentery. In a
letter to Ethel on 22 August 1915 he confided, ‘The endurance of this soldier
is not great.’ But the constant heat and poor hygiene were making many
men ill and causing considerable strain for the medical services at Gallipoli.
Colonel Howse, the Australian Director of Medical Services, sent Brudenell,
and MacLagan who was also ill, to Alexandria to recuperate. Ethel received a
48
Field Marshal Lord Kitchener
visits Gallipoli in December
1915 and talks to Sir William
Birdwood. Brudenell is behind,
on the left.
telegram at Eurambeen on 8 September advising her of his admission to the
19th General Hospital, Alexandria, with dysentery.61
By 25 September Brudenell had sufficiently recovered to return to Anzac.
He embarked on SS Osmanieh for the journey to Mudros and was in command
of 1000 reinforcements. Arriving at Mudros Brudenell was informed that
upon arrival at Anzac he was to take up the position as Brigadier General,
General Staff.62
Thus, on 1 October 1916, he became BGGS Australian and New Zealand
Army Corps, and began his long partnership with Lieutenant-General Sir
William Birdwood, who took permanent command of the AIF that month.
The occasion for the promotion was Brigadier-General Skeen’s ill health from
enteric fever and in consequence his return to base. Brudenell was the logical
choice for a position which involved operational duties, the administrative
control of the AIF, and issues of policy between the Australian Government
and the British Commander of its overseas forces.
With Birdwood’s departure to act as Commander-in-Chief of the
Dardanelles Army at Imbros in October 1915, Brudenell remained at
corps headquarters under General Sir Alexander Godley. There he planned
and supervised the evacuation of 80 000 men at Anzac and Suvla Bay, the
61Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 1, p. 2.
62 Diary Entry, 30 September 1915, White Papers, AWM, 3DRL6549, item 23.
49
most successful operation of the campaign. Put into effect in three stages,
his plan lulled the Turks into thinking that a lessening of activity was part
of preparations for winter. Indeed the initial stages were implemented well
in advance of the decision being taken to evacuate the peninsula. On the
night of 19–20 December the last 10 000 men were evacuated, transported
to Imbros and thence to Egypt; the withdrawal was accomplished without
incident and only two minor casualties. It was probably Brudenell’s greatest
tactical achievement. The whole movement was his devising, and he controlled
it day and night.63 The German Military Correspondent of the Vossiche Zeitung
wrote that ‘So long as wars last, the evacuation of Suvla and Anzac will stand
before the eyes of all strategists as a hitherto unattained masterpiece’.64 On
Christmas Day 1915 he wrote to Ethel:65
The French Admiral visits
ANZAC Cove. France lost an
estimated 10 000 men in the
Gallipoli campaign.
I feel a certain pride in having evolved the plan … more than one
general will probably get KCBs for the great feat ... It was on my plan
that the operation was carried out in spite of considerable opposition. I
want you to know that the work was mine and the plan was mine.
General Sir Alexander Godley entertained no doubts about Brudenell’s
role in the evacuation. Godley informed Birdwood that:
The thoroughness and excellence of the Staff work, which resulted in
the success of the operation, were mainly due to the conspicuous ability
and hard work of this Officer. He never spared himself in perfecting
all the arrangements and I look upon him as a General Staff Officer of
exceptional merit.66
Much later Brudenell said of Gallipoli:
Not a vain effort was the Gallipoli campaign; indeed no; albeit that in
the dead of a December night we ‘folded our tents ... and silently stole
away’. Militarily the operation was open to serious criticism, for alas, it
took place in extenuating circumstances truly, but at a time when ‘side
shows’, those pet whims of minds which see profit by lucky speculation
rather than by wise and laborious effort were much to be deprecated.
63Bean, CEW, writing in Reveille, 31 March 1931, Celebrities of the AIF (8): Cyril Brudenell White, the Maker of
the AIF. Dr Peter Stanley in Quinn’s Post (at p. 176) doubts that Brudenell was the author of the plan, but his
argument appears to overlook Brudenell’s own claim in correspondence to his wife (by a man undoubtedly
not prone to public boastfulness) and the evidence presented by Bean in, among other places, Two Men I
Knew, pp.106–118, including, in particular, the fact that the silence stunt was commenced on 24 November
1915, apparently before the drawing of any plans by Headquarters.
64Quoted in The Argus Melbourne, 9 April 1932, from the final volume of the Official History of the Gallipoli
Campaign by Brigadier-General C.F. Aspinall-Oglander.
65 Derham, The Silence Ruse, p.xi.
66 Godley to Birdwood, 23 December 1915, Appendix, General Staff War Diary, HQ ANZAC, AWM
4/1/25/9, Part 12; Bentley, Champion of Anzac, Ch. 9, p. 247.
50
Imperially and nationally it was a marvellous achievement, for although
not designed with so far-seeing an object, it created the nations of
Australia and New Zealand, and welded perhaps the strongest link in the
chain of Empire.67
Lord Kitchener at Anzac Cove.
This notion of the creation of a nation is one that was also advanced by
Charles Bean in his introduction to volume 1 of the Official History of Australia
in the War of 1914–1918.68 The sentiment is one Brudenell repeated on his
return to Australia in 1919 when he was fêted at every port, city and town on
his way home, and called on to speak. In one such speech he said:69
The Australian troops have made two great discoveries in the war, besides
the discovery of their own fine qualities. They have developed a national
spirit, and they have learned a patriotism that 100 years of living on the
soil could not have taught. Two things, I am convinced, would be found
uppermost in the minds of all of them, if we could read them. First,
that Australia is a nation; and next there is no country in the world like
Australia.
67 Readiness to Pursue a High Ideal, Country Life (Magazine), 25 April 1926; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2, p. 2.
68 The Official History of Australia in the War, 1914–1918, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1921, vol. I p.xxviii.
69 Daily Telegraph, Sydney 2 July 1919; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 1, p. 68.
51
Again, in 1921 he expressed a similar sentiment:70
Who will dare to say that Gallipoli was a failure if, from the memory of
our tears there, and if from the memory of those men who laid down
their lives, there should be created in this Australia of ours a nationalism
which is true nationalism ...
It is a notion that explains the great and growing interest in the Great War
and in particular the Gallipoli campaign amongst Australians generally and
particularly school children.
Egypt to the Western Front
Brudenell arrived in Egypt in the battleship HMAS Glory having spent
Christmas on Mudros. In a letter to Ethel he related how, not long after his
arrival, he met Colonel Howse, a great friend, talking to an Engineer General
who wanted to know who was ‘the very young General. Quite the youngest
General I have seen’. Howse replied, ‘Yes and he has more brains than all the
old ones put together’!
… Funny thing success, everyone was quite ready to bow down to me
when I arrived in Cairo … and senior Generals prepared to listen to me
quite respectfully … that is enough brag.71
In Egypt he had the principal role in implementing the expansion of the
AIF to four divisions. This involved the ‘doubling’ of the Australian Imperial
Force and its relocation to France. This massive task Brudenell accomplished in
six weeks. He directed every aspect of the reorganisation. Smoothly executed,
it was an outstanding administrative achievement and, following soon after
his planning of the withdrawal from Anzac, formed the second of the two
most brilliant and successful operations carried out by an Australian soldier.
Sir John Monash’s praise of Brudenell was sincere: ‘He is far and away the ablest
soldier Australia has ever turned out. He is also a charming good fellow.’72
One of the new divisional commands might have gone to him, but Birdwood
chose to maintain continuity in the force’s administration. Explaining his
decision to George Pearce, the Australian Minister of Defence, Birdwood said
that Brudenell was:
… of far greater value to the Australian force and to the Empire as my Chief
of Staff than he would be as a divisional general. He helps me and advises me
on all Australian matters, and ... I should feel very lost without him.73
70 Sydney Morning Herald, 2 April 1921; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2, p. 59a.
71 Letter Brudenell to Ethel, 9 January 1916, National Library, White Papers; Derham, The Silence Ruse, p.39.
72 Pedersen, P A, Monash as Military Commander, Melbourne University Press, 1985, p. 133.
73 Letter Birdwood to Pearce, 24 March 1916, Pearce Papers, AA A4719/1, item 63, vol. 12; Bentley, General
Brudenell White and the Making of an Army, a Book Proposal, 2005.
52
Brudenell visits the ANZAC
Headquarters at Ismailia,
Egypt, February 1916.
Appointed CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath) Brudenell embarked
for France on 29 March 1916 as BGGS, 1st ANZAC Corps.
On reaching France, he was involved in the creation of the Australian
Administrative Headquarters in Horseferry Road, London, and wrote its operating
charter and advised Birdwood on its staffing and command. From this point on
the AIF became self-governing with an administrative apparatus that was to rival
the Army Headquarters in Melbourne and which gave the AIF a substantial level
of independence from the Army Headquarters and Ministry of Defence.
His authority over the AIF on the Western Front was pervasive. It was
generally recognised that he was responsible for running the corps, while
Birdwood exercised command through regular and direct contact with the
men. When General Sir Douglas Haig rebuked the Anzac Corps staff after a
failure at Pozières Heights in July 1916, it was Brudenell who showed him ‘in
detail, item by item’ that the criticism was unfounded. Haig was sufficiently
impressed to reply: ‘I daresay you are right, young man’.
Notwithstanding his close relationship with ‘his’ Australians, Birdwood’s
administration and organisation were weak and his tactical acumen suspect.
Brudenell more than compensated for these shortcomings. In fact the
real responsibility for the command of the Australian divisions fell upon
Brudenell. He could not recall Birdwood ever drafting a plan, and as for
his visits to the men, ‘he never brought back with him a reliable summary
of what he had seen there. He would say that so-and-so had a couple of
53
Field Marshal William Riddell
Birdwood GCB GCMG GCVO
GBE
companies overlooking such and such a post. I would find out later this was
completely wrong.’ Birdwood’s habit of passing all operational matters on to
Brudenell placed an extraordinary burden upon him. By mid-1917, the strain
was telling to such an extent that he called General Birdwood ‘a man of no
quality ... so petty was I that even today when the chief went on leave I could
not bring myself to congratulate him on his KCB ... Up to now I have treated
it in contemptuous silence which I could see he observed.’74
After the failure of Bullecourt in 1917 Brudenell, like many Australians,
began to reassess their confidence in the British High Command. In later years
Brudenell believed he should have more stringently resisted General Gough’s
battle plan and risked being relieved of his command and returned to England.75
During the Second Battle of Bullecourt Brudenell informed Major General Sir
Neill Malcolm, Major General, General Staff British Fifth Army, that:
… he would never again give his concurrence in the sending overseas of
an Australian force unless it had on the staff of the commander-in-chief
a representative with the unquestioned right of placing its point of view
before the ‘chief ’.76
Brudenell earned considerable respect for his ability to speak his mind in a
polite but forthright manner. In an analysis of Brudenell, Birdwood remarked
that he gave his views to his leader ‘fearlessly and unhesitatingly’ and then
carried out his commander’s recommendations, even when they were contrary
to his own.77
Moreover, Brudenell understood the need to provide for the comfort and
well-being of the troops, notably in the dreadful winter of 1916–17 when
there was an urgent requirement to build camps, roads and railways. Because
it became known that he could get things done, problems were referred to
him: ‘During this, the most difficult period of the AIF’s existence’, he wielded
unprecedented influence. Under Birdwood, Brudenell found himself the
‘tactical and administrative commander in all but name’.78
Although concern had already been expressed that he was ‘being kept back
on account of his usefulness as a staff officer’, as Birdwood had admitted in
a letter to Hutton in September, Brudenell was promoted temporary MajorGeneral on 1 January 1917 and continued as Birdwood’s chief of staff.
Throughout the advance to the Hindenburg line in March, he constantly
advised the divisional commanders and maintained control in the unfamiliar
74 Pedersen, P A, Monash As Military Commander, Melbourne University Press, 1985, p. 298.
76 Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, Vol. 4, p. 684.
77 Birdwood, ‘General Sir Brudenell White’, pp. 5–7; Bentley, Champion of Anzac, h 2.
78 Bean, Two Men I Knew, p 222.
54
Imperial officers on a Staff
Tour, 1917.
conditions of fighting on the move. At times his responsibilities bore hard
upon him. Writing to his old friend Brigadier General (Sir) John Gellibrand
in June, after the two costly battles of Bullecourt, he vented his dissatisfaction
with Birdwood and the remainder of the staff. Yet, he attributed his irritability
to tiredness: ‘I know in my innermost heart that all I need is a certain amount
of rest and freedom from responsibility and I will see the world in correct
perspective again for a while.’
In July 1917, when Currie assumed command of the Canadian Corps,
Haig told Brudenell he should be commanding the 1st Anzac and was peeved
by the latter’s reply: ‘God forbid! General Birdwood has a position among
Australians which is far too valuable to lose’. In view of Haig’s dislike of
Birdwood: ‘from that moment forward, Monash was Haig’s man’.79
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
79 Bean, Two Men I Knew, p. 164; Pedersen, P A, Monash as Military Commander, Melbourne University Press,
1985, relying on Bean’s Diary. However, AJ Smithers in Sir John Monash, A Biography of Australia’s most
distinguished Soldier of the First World War, Leo Cooper, London 1973, at p. 200, expresses the view that Haig
was too big a man to permit a moment of irritation resulting from a failure to be rid of Birdwood to feel
rancour against a man whose loyalty to his chief had foiled him. He knew perfectly well that Brudenell had
been the effective commander of the corps many times during the absence of Birdwood and that he would
make an admirable successor.
55
command. By September Brudenell 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 Battle of Menin Road
on 20 September 1917, and in later thrusts.
Charles Bean and (Sir) Keith Murdoch agitated behind the scenes later in
the year to have Brudenell placed in command, though to no avail. Brudenell
was appointed CMG in December.
Following the collapse of the British Fifth Army in the German offensive
of March 1918, General Birdwood was selected as its commander, opening the
question of who should lead the newly formed Australian Corps. There was
much debate about who would be chosen. Much later it was reported that:
The Prime Minister once told a story of Sir John Monash’s appointment
as corps commander in succession to Birdwood. He sent for General
White, and asked him who were the Australians who had reasonable
claims to the position. White mentioned Sir John Monash and one of
the other divisional commanders. ‘Is that all?’ asked Mr Hughes. ‘Those
two stand out, Sir,’ replied Sir Brudenell. ‘Did you ever hear of a chap
named White?’ said Mr Hughes. The soldier laughed and shook his
head, and Sir John got the corps.80
On learning in May that Major General Sir John Monash would be
appointed and that Brudenell would go to the Fifth Army with Birdwood, Bean
and Murdoch revived their campaign: their aim was to have Monash promoted
general and made general officer commanding the AIF in England, thus
leaving Brudenell to take the corps. Brudenell gave them no encouragement
and dissociated himself from their manoeuvres. His conduct was exemplary.
As Monash was his senior, he could not see how Monash could be passed over
without injustice. Hence he did nothing to advance his own cause, much to the
chagrin of Bean and the other correspondents.81 Monash’s appointment had
been proper and deserved. As arrangements stood, administrative command of
the AIF would remain nominally with Birdwood, but in effect with Brudenell,
thereby enabling him to retain control of the cherished force he had done so
much to create and advance. For these reasons, Brudenell suppressed personal
ambition for what he held to be a greater good. On 1 June he took up duties as
Major-General, General Staff, Fifth Army, and had little further involvement
in operations. He was promoted to Lieutenant-General and performed the dual
roles of Chief of Staff, Australian Imperial Force and Chief of Staff, British 5th
Army (the first Australian appointed to such a position).
80 The Herald, Melbourne, 20 May 1922.
81 Pedersen, P A, Monash As Military Commander, Melbourne University Press, 1985, p. 216.
56
It is not widely known that the plan for
the Battle of Hamel was originally Brudenell’s.
At a critical juncture of the war the British military
leadership asked Brudenell to plan the attack.
Brudenell planned the attack even though he
expressed serious reservations and objections to the
proposed operation. In his account of the Battle of
Hamel, historian John Laffin argues that once again
Brudenell had demonstrated his moral courage in
pressing home his objections to a general.82 The
attack was postponed owing to the last German
offensive in 1918. With Brudenell’s transfer to the
British 5th Army it was left to Sir John Monash to
undertake this operation and ultimately take the
credit.83
On 10 January 1918, Brudenell’s father, John
Warren White, aged 91, died at the residence of
his daughter Mrs Kenneth Hutchinson (Mabel) at
Vulture Street, South Brisbane.
Early in 1918, Brudenell, realising 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.
After the Armistice on 11 November 1918,
Brudenell was sent to London to preside, briefly
as it turned out, over the Demobilization and
Repatriation Branch. He was promoted temporary
Lieutenant-General and made Chief of Staff, AIF,
on 28 November 1918. He was appointed KCMG
on 1 January 1919. For his services after Gallipoli, he received five foreign
decorations, was appointed aide-de-camp to King George V and mentioned
in despatches five times. His brilliant war record had been due to his loyalty,
professionalism, intelligence and capacity to work harmoniously with
successive leaders. As Smithers put it succinctly, ‘[h]e had a talent for clarity of
thought and painstaking explanation which few others could equal, allied to
an integrity fully matching that of Bridges. No man ever left him in anger.’84
CEW Bean in 1919.
82 Laffin, J,The Battle of Hamel: The Australians’ Finest Victory, Kangaroo Press, Melbourne, 1999, p. 55;
Bentley, General Brudenell White and the Making of an Army, a Book Proposal, 2005.
83 Albeit with the use of the new Mark V tank.
84 Smithers, AJ, Sir John Monash, p. 35.
57
The poet bloke wot wrote about
The good that Birdy’s done,
He mighter said a word about
The man behind the ‘gun’.
I’m not referring to me mates,
Nor cobbers of a fight;
But just about the quiet bloke,
OUR Major-General White.
.....
We done a lot for Birdy,
An’ we ‘elped ‘im on a few,
An’ ‘e’s gathered in the limelight,
But give a bloke ‘is due
And when the tale is proper told
With censors put to right,
You’ll learn the Anzac champ-i-on
Was Major-General White.
Melbourne Herald, 28 June 1918.
The return to Australia
Sir Brudenell returned to Australia aboard the Australia, as the guest of
Commodore Dumaresq, in June 1919, and was fêted as a war hero. Ethel kept
a scrap book containing many of the newspaper reports of his return. His first
port was Fremantle in Western Australia. The West Australian reported on his
birth and history and reported many comments, including:
When asked what he regarded as the chief achievement of the Australians
during the war, the Lieutenant-General said it was a very difficult
question to answer. Their deeds in France were magnificent, but he
could not help thinking that history would show that their operations at
Gallipoli were perhaps the most outstanding.
It was the irreverent Bulletin of 24 July 1919 which put his position in
perspective when it reported:
58
Lieutenant-General Brudenell
White in Adelaide with
Commodore J S Dumaresq of
the Australia, and Sir Henry
Galway, Governor of South
Australia, 1919.
...White ... as Chief of Staff to Bridges and Birdwood, worked hard with
the Diggers from the first days on Gallipoli to the last minute in France.
In several stunts shells started following him about and on one occasion
a huge missile dropped onto his motor just after he had left it, and blew
a horrible vacancy for a car and chauffeur. White comes from St Arnaud
(Vic) which produced a quantity of expert rifleman, but he began his
military life in the banana land and had his initial whiff of war in South
Africa. Now only 42 and charged with advising on the organisation of
the future Australian Army, the General has a restless life before him.
Soon he will be needing a dray to haul his decorations which include,
beside the inevitable KCMG and CB, the DSO, MC, Belgian Croix de
Guerre, and the Gold Medal for Merit from little Montenegro.
The Register of Adelaide, on 7 June 1919, had reported in much more
glowing terms:
59
In those far back years before the war, a young officer used to come over
to South Australia from Military Headquarters and inspect the camps. He
was a Captain then. But a long time before that I remember meeting, with
General Sir Edward Hutton, when he was General Officer Commanding
the Australian Forces, a smart lieutenant who was his orderly officer. It
was his business to carry messages from Gen Hutton and do his bidding
generally. I recall today that the GOC said he did the job capitally. Gen
Hutton took to him. And I remember, too, that on the visits to the
military camps there was always something this young officer did and
something that he said which made the Commandant refer to him as ‘a
coming man’. They said one day he would occupy Gen Hutton’s position
in Australia. On Friday afternoon, at Government House, I shook
hands with Major-General Sir Cyril White [sic] KCMG, CBE, DSO – a
‘coming’ man no longer, but here as one of the most brilliant celebrities
of the war. Yet I saw no difference in him. He was bigger in personality, of
course, filled out by great and dramatic achievements during nearly five
years of war. And I knew his vision must have widened, although with his
keen, penetrating intellect, he always saw a long way ahead. Yet there were
the same qualities of resolute self effacement and, if possible, an even more
robust patriotism. I saw the same discerning eyes, the same kindly face,
but older for what he had gone through. He was still the great enthusiast,
the great Australian, caring not a jot for the clever things he did, so long
as it was to some practical purpose – and Australia benefited and got the
credit. No amount of glory will change that wonderful young man.
Brudenell arrived at Spencer Street Station on 7 June 1919. A portion of
the station platform had been enclosed with barricades, and in the enclosure
was a distinguished group of senior naval and military officers. A military
band welcomed him. Preceded by six mounted policeman and a military band,
Brudenell and Ethel, accompanied by Brigadier-General Brand and followed
by a procession of motor cars, drove to the Town Hall by way of Collins,
Elizabeth, Burke and Swanston streets. Then followed a reception at the Town
Hall at which the Lord Mayor presided, attended by the Acting Minister for
Defence, Senator Russell, and many other distinguished guests.
Not long after his arrival in Melbourne, Brudenell and Ethel travelled to
Brisbane on the Sydney Mail Train. He was greeted at the Brisbane Central
Railway station, to quote the Brisbane Telegraph85,
…as a distinguished and gallant soldier should – amidst a flourish
of trumpets and the cheers and shouts of an enormous concourse …
85 4 July 1919.
60
densely thronged with people … and a great outburst of cheering.
Branches of golden wattle adorned the interior of the carriage in which
General and Lady White travelled.
He was there to visit his mother and his family, not on official business,
but was greeted as a returning hero. The Telegraph continued to describe the
welcome:
Outside the platform, General and Lady White passed through a guard
of honour formed by returned soldiers, entered a waiting motorcar,
which was gaily decorated with red, white and blue streamers, while the
Union Jack and the Australian flag completely enveloped the hood and
body of the car. People crowded around the car and vociferously cheered
their soldier hero…
Brudenell found that his first peacetime task was to join Major-General
Legge, Sir James McCay and George Swinburne on a committee which
considered the future organisation of the AMF. Their report recommended a
modified system of compulsory military training and a citizen force structure of
six infantry and two mounted divisions – some 180 000 men. In February 1920
the committee, enlarged to comprise six generals of the former AIF, produced a
second report. Minor changes to the earlier proposals were suggested.
Chief of the General Staff
On 1 June 1920 Brudenell was appointed Chief of the General Staff. In that
position, he was prepared to implement the committee’s proposals for the
future organisation of the AMF, but faced savage cuts in defence spending.
Rather than building a citizen army, as he had hoped, he found himself
preserving as much of it as he could in a nucleus organisation which would be
capable of expansion in an emergency. Brudenell imposed one key principle,
the retention of a nucleus within each layer of the army. This allowed for the
key people in commands, staff, divisions, brigades, battalions, companies and
platoons to be highly trained. These people would then provide the traditions,
values and knowledge upon which to base any future expansion of the army.
He was obviously drawing on the lessons of 1916 when he doubled the size
of the AIF.86
In February 1920 the Prime Minister announced that Brudenell had been
appointed as organiser for Australia of the impending visit of HRH the Prince
of Wales in May. This was an occasion of great excitement and much reported in
the press. There were, of course, formal events at Government Houses around
the land. But one less formal event is striking in its portrayal of the times:
86 Bentley, Champion of Anzac, Epilogue, p. 338.
61
Admiral Halsey and Brudenell
at Coochin Coochin, Boonah,
Queensland, during the visit of
the Prince of Wales, 1920.
The Prince spent what he himself declared as one of the most enjoyable
afternoons he had experienced since his tour began. Accompanied by
Lieutenant-General Sir Brudenell White, he was a guest of the South
Australian Jockey club at Morphettville, where a varied entertainment
of racing, coursing and riding had been arranged for him. Only a few
privileged people with special passes were permitted to enter the course.
Upon expressing a desire to canter around the course, the steeplechaser,
High Degree, was produced for the Prince, while Sir Brudenell White
was mounted on Erskine, and Mr Nat Campbell strode Ferrignite. The
trio cantered to the three-furlong post, where the Prince suddenly broke
away with Ferrignite in hot pursuit, and, amid all round cheering, His
Royal Highness was first home by about half a length. Another spin was
immediately agreed upon and the trio again cantered round the course
and on this occasion High Degree got the best of matters at the home
turn and again the Prince was successful from Ferrignite. The Prince,
perspiring freely, was still keen for the fray and the third contest he rode
Ferrignite and Mr Campbell changed over onto Boontree, while Sir
Brudenell White was still mounted on Erskine.87
That Brudenell carried out the arrangements for the tour to the satisfaction
of the Royal visitor is evidenced by the KCVO that was bestowed on him, an
honour rare in Australia, and at that time he was the only Australian to have it.88
87 Argus, Melbourne, 16 July 1920. And there were more races thereafter by the Prince against Mr. Campbell
and Brudenell reported in the article.
88The Royal Victorian Order was established in 1896 by Queen Victoria as a Junior and personal order of
knighthood. Membership of the Order is conferred by the reigning Monarch without ministerial advice on
those who have performed personal service to the sovereign, any member of his or her family or any Viceroy.
62
In January 1921 Brudenell and Ethel’s youngest child
was born, Rosemary Joan Brudenell, who later married
David P Derham and who wrote The Silence Ruse, a record
and memory of the life of Brudenell White. Also at about
the same time, Brudenell purchased Aralba,89 in Grange
Road, Toorak.
The Honourable Sir John Young AC KCMG, after
his retirement as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Victoria, when launching The Silence Ruse, reminisced:
In 1925 my father bought Sir Brudenell White’s house
in Toorak. Rosemary remembers a small boy led by his
father’s hand down the path. I cannot remember that
occasion but I did always know that we had bought
Brudenell White’s house. I was not told much about
him but I gained the impression that my father stood
somewhat in awe of him. And well he might have
done, not that Brudenell White was, I imagine, a
particularly awesome figure – he had I gather a friendly
manner – but his achievements were indeed aweinspiring.
Chairman of the Public Service Board
Brudenell with his youngest
child, Rosemary, in the garden
at Aralba, Toorak, April 1924.
Retiring as Chief of General Staff in June 1923, Brudenell was appointed
chairman of the newly constituted Commonwealth Public Service Board.
Although his primary task was to reclassify the service, he also supervised the
progressive transfer of departments from Melbourne to Canberra. Brudenell
drew upon his extensive experience as a manager and administrator within the
Australian Army to form an organisational structure for the Public Service that
is still used today.90
Between the Wars, Brudenell was invited to speak on a great variety of
occasions, including Anzac day ceremonies and school speech nights. In 1923
he presented the prizes at Camberwell Girls’ Grammar School and a report in
the Argus quoted part of his speech:91
… there were three principles with which to equip ourselves. They might
be termed the ‘three Cs’ – Christianity, character, and capacity! Character
might be gained by the development of self-reliance. He had no love for
the boy or girl who had not really got that spirit. People were too apt to
89 An Aboriginal word meaning ‘camping’ or ‘resting place’.
90 Bentley, Champion of Anzac.
91 Argus 21 December 1923; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2, p. 73.
63
Lady White featured on the
front of Queensland Society
magazine, September 1923.
take their cue from someone else and seldom had the courage to express
their own opinions. Work was the keynote of capacity. It was not the
irksome sort of thing that many people supposed. It had honour and
dignity, and he had rarely known it to hurt anyone. It was incapacity that
hurt. As to Christianity, there was a great fundamental truth in the Bible,
which said, ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself ’. Nobody could live alone. To
live to the full was to live for somebody, and be kind to one’s neighbour
and fellow man.
64
In 1926 he again presented the prizes at the Camberwell Girls’ Grammar
School speech night. On this occasion his remarks were more directed to his
female audience. He was reported – again in the Argus – as saying92:
… there should be some ideal, some ambition, in all they tried to do. It
was very necessary for them to feel that individual happiness, success,
and welfare were important, but that the welfare of Australia was the
thing that really mattered... If Australia were to have a right ideal it
must be built in the home. That was the right place, and practically the
only place. Were we in Australia making the home all that it should be?
Sometimes he doubted whether we were … Home life should be made
beautiful and memorable. There was a little tendency today for young
folks to be awfully nice to strangers, but not so nice to those at home.
This should not be. Every home could be made a home of beauty by the
spirit within it. That was the ideal he desired to place before the young
girls of the Camberwell Grammar School. They should not forget a
woman’s influence. Christianity was the basis of our civilisation, but one
of the pillars of the superstructure was undoubtedly woman’s influence.
Girls should not let their natures be changed because the fashion of their
clothes had been changed. They should not forget that modesty and
gentleness were characteristics of their sex. The girl should not try to
be too much like a boy. There were plenty of boys here already. No one
should be afraid to work. The average man or woman who had too much
spare time was not happy ...
In 1925 Brudenell purchased a grazing property of 2400 acres, with
homestead, at Middle Creek, near Beaufort, Victoria. It formed part of
the Burnbrae estate of Mr J McDonald, who retained 1200 acres. There he
established a home and grazing property and named it Woodnaggerak93.
The price was about £10 000. Brudenell sold
Aralba to Mr G D Young for £5500.
He worked in Melbourne during the
week, staying at the Melbourne Club, and
spent the weekends at Woodnaggerak, taking
the train to and fro. In 1932 Brudenell
purchased 295 acres from the estate of the late
John Simpson. Later, in 1934, he purchased
Challicum, near Buangor and just 10 miles
from Woodnaggerak, which became the home
of his elder son, Jim.
Woodnaggerak homestead,
Middle Creek, near Beaufort,
Victoria.
92 Argus 18 December 1926; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2, p. 73.
93 An aboriginal word meaning ‘long arms’.
65
Above: Brudenell (on the far left) and Ethel (right) during the April 1927
Royal Tour of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York.
Left: Brudenell as their ‘guide, philosopher and friend’.
In 1927 he was appointed director-general of the
Royal tour by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King
George VI and Queen Elizabeth), and in consequence was
appointed KCB. His organisation of the tour was reported
to be exemplary. He was always in the background, yet so
great an organiser that the only mishap in the whole tour
was when an excited Aborigine at Beaudesert (Queensland)
threw his boomerang through the luncheon marquee and
nearly decapitated Royalty. They say that the blackfellow’s
sprint into the scrub when Brudenell approached to
question him beat the Olympic record for the distance.94
94 The Herald, Melbourne, 16 March 1940; Ethel White’s scrap book, vol. 2 p. 115a.
66
Chairman of the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agency
Wishing to remain within weekly commuting distance of
Woodnaggerak, when the Commonwealth Government moved
to Canberra he chose not to move, and in 1928 declined a
further term on the Public Service Board. That year he became
chairman and superintendent for Australia of the New Zealand
Loan & Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd95. He was also appointed
to other Boards and bodies, including the Trustees Executors
and Agency Company Ltd.96 His withdrawal from public office
enabled him to build up his pastoral interests and to enjoy the
simple pleasures he preferred. He read widely, with a special
interest in history. Ever ready to give his time to charitable
and service organisations, he was a trustee of the AIF Canteen
Funds Trust and the Baillieu Education Trust, and a member
of the Australian War Memorial Board and the Board of
Management of the Alfred Hospital. He was President of the
Melbourne Club in 1934, and prominent in its affairs.
Claims have been made that Brudenell was involved in
right-wing ‘secret armies’ in the 1920s and 1930s. The evidence
for such assertions is circumstantial at best, consisting mainly
of hearsay in police intelligence files which alleges that he was prominent
in the ‘White Army’; this organisation, however, took its title from the
political associations of the colour and not from Brudenell’s surname. A man
of sensitivity and intellect, he believed in the rule of law. His training and
experience had finally persuaded him that democracy was ‘right in principle’.
He later argued that there was ‘no need for national guards, legions, or such
like organisations’: citizens should be encouraged to support their elected
political leaders. Though patrician in manner and very conservative in his
views, he was an improbable political vigilante.
Caption
Brudenell White in 1937.
95 The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Limited operated in the fields of wool-broking,
pastoral investment and stock and station activities. It was originally incorporated in 1865. The company
made advances in the Australasian Colonies on produce, on the stations and stocks of run-holders, and on
the growing clips of wool; and received the consignment of wool, grain, tallow, leather, hides, skins, horns,
preserved and frozen meats, metals, cotton, kauri gum, etc., for sale in London. The company entered into
no mercantile ventures on its own account. Its head quarters in the colonies were in Auckland, and it had
offices in twenty-one towns and cities in New Zealand, besides branches and agencies in Melbourne, Sydney,
Adelaide, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Launceston, Fiji, and San Francisco. The head office of the company was
No. 1, Queen Victoria Street, Mansion House, London. In 1893 in consequence of the financial depression,
the Company suspended operations with a view to reconstruction, which occurred in 1894. It merged with
Dalgety & Co Ltd in Nov 1961 to form Dalgety & New Zealand Loan Ltd Many of the records of the
Company are in the Australian National University Archives. Brudenell gave evidence in the Banking Royal
Commission of 1936 and his evidence showed that the Company competed with Banks in making advances
(loans) to pastoralists and farmers.
96 Precisely when he was appointed to the Board of this company is not clear, but he was vice-chairman in
1937: see the report of the AGM in the Argus on 20 August 1937.
67
The Second World War
Placed on the retired list in the rank of honorary lieutenant-general in August
1939, Brudenell was recalled to be Chief of the General Staff on 15 March
1940, following the death in office of Lieutenant-General Ernest Squires. His
sense of duty compelled him to accept the post – which brought promotion
to General – even though at 63 years of age he believed himself to be out of
date: ‘I feel like Cincinnatus called from his farm’, said Brudenell when he was
called from a job of digging out a spring to water his stock to be congratulated.
‘And may I say that I much prefer being Cincinnatus at the plough although
I do appreciate the honour paid to me’.97 His appointment as General was
gazetted on 23 March 1940 and was the first time an Australian soldier on the
active list had served as a full General. Both Sir Harry Chauvel and Sir John
Monash had been promoted to the rank of General after their retirement from
active service.98
One of Brudenell’s first acts as Chief of the General Staff was to recommend
Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Blamey for command of the new Australian
Infantry Force. In April he urged that Blamey and the 7th Division should sail
as soon as possible to join the 6th Division; in May and June he recommended
that the AIF should be brought into the fighting without delay, preferably
assisting the beleaguered French. Meanwhile, he grappled with the problems
of training and munitions supply.
His second term as Chief of the General Staff proved too short to affect
the course of Australia’s effort in the Second World War. Brudenell’s greatest
achievement had been in the previous conflict: one of the founders of the
Australian Imperial Force, he had become its ‘tactical and administrative
commander in all but name’. A consummate chief of staff, his distinction
in the role had denied him senior command and the public recognition that
went with it. Nevertheless, Bean described him as the greatest man he had ever
known, and his judgment was shared by many.
On 13 August 1940 Brudenell flew from Melbourne in the company
of three Federal ministers, James Fairbairn, Sir Henry Gullett and Geoffrey
Street; their aircraft crashed near Canberra aerodrome, killing all ten on board.
After a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, with state and military
honours, Brudenell was buried in Buangor cemetery. His wife, two daughters
and two sons survived him. A portrait of Brudenell by John Longstaff is in the
Australian War Memorial and he is commemorated by a bronze plaque in the
Church of St John the Baptist, Canberra.
97 Quoted in the Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 13 March 1940; Ethel White’s scrap Book, vol. 2, p. 104.
98 Argus, 21 March 1940; Ethel White’s scrapbook, volume 2, p. 98.
68
The VIP aeroplane crash in
which Brudenell White and
nine others were killed was
reported in the Telegraph of
14 August 1940.
A Great Soldier
It has been said that Brudenell:
… was devoted to the Australian Soldier and the welfare of
members of the AIF was always uppermost in his mind. He had, in a
sense, created the first AIF, for it was his plan that was put into effect
when war broke out and he felt a special responsibility for them.
He abhorred unnecessary loss of life and he was highly critical
of occasions when lives were unnecessarily lost through failure to
complete adequate planning.99
Writing of Brudenell, Robert Menzies said:
What a great man he was in character, in attainments, in patriotism. Of
all the men who served Australia in the military sphere, he is the one
to whom my memory will turn in my last days as the very model of
everything that an Australian should be.100
99 The words of Sir John Young at the launch of The Silence Ruse.
100 Robert Menzies, ‘Foreword’, in Derham, The Silence Ruse, p. viii.
69
Brudenell was a man of great personal charm whose pleasant manner did
not suggest his real strength. He was quite unselfseeking, completely loyal to
his superiors and to his men. He had had an excellent training, he had great
powers of work and a quick brain; his remarkable grasp of essentials enabled
him to give prompt decisions on all problems whether of organisation or
tactics. These were some of the qualities that made him, as chief of staff, one
of the great soldiers of the 1914–18 war. To some he was a greater soldier
than Monash who himself described him as ‘far and away the ablest soldier
Australia had ever turned out’, but their work was scarcely comparable.
It may truly be said of Brudenell that, although apparently little in touch
with the junior officers and men in the ranks, no single man did more to
mould the AIF.
In an article written under the nom de plume of ‘Menin’ in the Sydney Sun
on 25 January 1920, Charles Bean said of Brudenell:
… White, tall, slight and elegant, is a polished gentleman of
extraordinary personal charm. His high intelligence is told in the singular
light in his eyes; his strength of character in his great hooked nose and
his firm but sensitive mouth. White is so delightfully courteous and so
disarmingly diffident in his manner that on first acquaintance one might
not suspect his piercing, luminous insight, his unshakeable strength of
character, or his wide and sure grasp not only of all things military, but a
great range of diverse subjects outside his profession …
White went away from Australia as a staff major and came back a
Lieutenant-General and Chief of Staff to one of England’s five great
Western front armies. And in all that time no one ever declared that he
was lucky; in all that time one is safe in saying that he never applied or
moved by indirect means for a single one of his many promotions. He
did not owe his staff rise from relative obscurity to international fame, as
did so many British soldiers who reached high places during the war, to
social or political influence …
Birdwood was a thousand times lucky in his Australian chief of staff …
of the two White was the man of genius. Birdwood directed, but White
suggested, and White executed. It is said and I believe with truth that on
the night after landing at Anzac, when the capital objective, which was
the complete crossing of the Peninsula, had been proved impossible of
attainment, White had the foresight and courage to urge an immediate
evacuation. Be that as it may, it was White who drafted the orders for
the evacuation and who alone was responsible for the handling of that
famous and delicate movement …
70
White worked in the dark. He courted no
publicity. I remember seeing him one day in
France when Haig was inspecting two of the
Australian divisions, shortly before the terrible
fighting at Passchendaele. Both divisions were
at full strength. They paraded with their arms
bared to the elbows and two more beautiful or
formidable divisions of fighting men never walked
upon this earth. There was an imposing array of
staff officers from GHQ, army and corps. Sitting
on his horse, away and alone in the rear of the
gilded and pretentious staff throng, was General
White, his position and whole bearing expressing
a shrinking dislike from the limelight ceremonial. So it was with him
all through the war. Avoiding all notice, he was almost unknown to the
Australian people, and he was very little known to the men who were his
ceaseless thought and care at Gallipoli and in France …
Brudenell White in 1937.
With an amazing capacity for hard work, White possesses an intensely
sympathetic mind of a very exceptional quality. Staff officers who loved
White – and they were a legion – often sought to save him from the
multitudinous details associated not only with the corps command, but
with the thousand and one affairs of administration in connection with
a body of three hundred thousand soldiers. ‘But,’ they would say, ‘White
is so accessible, and he clears up things so swiftly and decisively, and
his decisions are so final and dependable, that we find, try as we may,
everything which gives trouble comes up sooner or later for his settlement.’
White at work was a fine exhibition of a rich, lightning-like judicial mind.
Detaching completely from subject to subject it would scan papers, sum
up pros and cons, and settle, in a few minutes, complex riddles which had
been vexing his various staff officers for days and weeks. And always the
same charming, smiling courtesy, always the immovable good humour,
but always underneath this happy exterior the same steely strength. White
was like a rare, dependable old blade of Toledo.
The adulation that Bean heaped on Brudenell has caused many subsequent
historians to doubt the efficacy of his opinions concerning White’s contributions
as depicted in this article, and in other respects concerning his achievements.
I have little doubt that during his life this adulation embarrassed Brudenell,
but I have not so far seen any mention of it in his diaries.
Note: For references see p. 213.
71
72

General Sir Brudenell White - Anzac Centenary Victorian Government

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