Australian Flying Corps, 1919-40
- Component identifier:
- Series 4
- Content Summary:
-
During World War I White served with the Australian Flying Corps where he quickly earned a reputation for his skilled piloting. In 1914, he was one of four officers chosen to undertake initial training at Point Cook, and was appointed to Half Flight (the first Australian Flying Corps unit) on overseas duty. In 1915 while employed on a bombing raid of Turkish communication posts with British Army observer Captain Francis Yeats-Brown, they were captured by the Turks outside Baghdad. After a three years as a prisoner of war White escaped in 1918 as a stowaway on a Russian-bound ship to Odessa, rejoining British forces at Salonika. In later life he recorded details of his escape in the often reprinted Guests of the unspeakable and gave many lectures to interested groups on his wartime experiences.
Other papers relating to White's service with the Australian Flying Corps are filed in Series 3; draft manuscripts and reviews of Guests of the unspeakable can be found in Series 11. Correspondence with Yeats-Brown, who survived the war to write the best-selling autobiography Bengal lancer, is located in Series 7.
- Immediate source of acquisition:
- The papers were donated to the Library by White's daughters in two consignments in January 1997 and March 1998, and together constitute an impressive record of White's varied and distinguished career as a pilot, politician, diplomat and writer.
- Names:
- Thomas White
Contents
Access and use
- Parent Restrictions:
- Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1516685).
- Parent Terms of Access:
- Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
- Location of this collection:
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Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: