Australian Dictionary of Biography

  • Tip: searches only the name field
  • Tip: Use double quotes to search for a phrase

Cultural Advice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains names, images, and voices of deceased persons.

In addition, some articles contain terms or views that were acceptable within mainstream Australian culture in the period in which they were written, but may no longer be considered appropriate.

These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Australian National University.

Older articles are being reviewed with a view to bringing them into line with contemporary values but the original text will remain available for historical context.

Bruce White (1916–1984)

by Peter Edwards

This article was published:

View Previous Version

Bruce White (1916-1984), public servant, was born on 3 November 1916 at Coburg, Melbourne, second child of English-born Bruce Hellyar White, clerk, and his wife Blanche Mabel, née Dynan, born in Melbourne. Educated at St Kevin’s College, Toorak, Bruce joined the Department of Defence, Commonwealth Public Service, in 1934. On 1 February 1941 at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Surrey Hills, he married Jean Douglas, a civil servant. Having enrolled at the University of Melbourne (B.Com., 1942), he also gained a diploma in public administration.

On 27 February 1942 White enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. Qualifying as a navigator, he served in the South-West Pacific Area with No.13 Squadron (November-December 1943 and April 1944-February 1945), No.2 Squadron (December 1943-March 1944) and No.11 Communication Unit (May-September 1945). He was commissioned in 1943 and promoted to temporary flight lieutenant in 1945 before being demobilised on 29 November.

White was a personnel superintendent (1946-48) with the Overseas Telecommunications Commission. In 1949 he became a Public Service Board inspector and was a leading figure in advancing the study of organisation and method. He was appointed secretary and permanent head of the Department of the Army in 1958. Although he had a seat on the Military Board, he had little influence on military or strategic policy, and he was not a member of the Defence Committee, the principal source of official advice on defence policy. He concentrated mainly on the army’s financial administration and, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, on trying to protect his ministers, all of whom were in their first ministerial post, from the controversies associated with the Vietnam War: Malcolm Fraser, (Sir) Phillip Lynch and Andrew Peacock later progressed to senior positions. In 1963 White had been appointed CBE.

White became the centre of controversy in November 1966, when he publicly doubted the utility of the bombing by the United States of America of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He said that Australian soldiers preferred not to fight in close proximity to their United States and South Vietnamese allies, that the Americans took risks that the Australians could not afford, and that the South Vietnamese soldiers suffered from poor leadership. Many Australian military and civilian officials held these views, but for White to express them publicly, and before an election in which the Vietnam War was a central issue, was uncharacteristically indiscreet.

In 1973 the Whitlam government directed the secretary of the Department of Defence, Sir Arthur Tange, to devise a major reorganisation of Australian defence administration, in which the three service departments were abolished and their functions absorbed into the Department of Defence. As Tange’s principal assistant, with the specially created title of permanent head assisting the secretary of defence, White oversaw the abolition of his department and therefore his position. He retired that year. Survived by his wife and their two daughters and five sons, he died of cardiac failure on 9 August 1984 in Canberra and was cremated after a requiem Mass at St Christopher’s Cathedral, Manuka.

Select Bibliography

  • P. Edwards, A Nation at War (1997) and Arthur Tange (2006)
  • Sydney Morning Herald, 2 Nov 1966, p 1
  • Canberra Times, 10 Aug 1984, p 6
  • A9300, item WHITE B (National Archives of Australia).

Related Entries in NCB Sites

Citation details

Peter Edwards, 'White, Bruce (1916–1984)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/white-bruce-15806/text27005, published first in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 19 March 2024.

This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18, (Melbourne University Press), 2012

View the front pages for Volume 18

© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2024

Life Summary [details]

Birth

3 November, 1916
Coburg, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Death

9 August, 1984 (aged 67)
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Cause of Death

heart disease

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

Occupation