FamilyHistory4u: April 2015

MY 100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF ANZAC DAY POST - AN ANZAC BOX

John Clarke White with his father Hugh Eston and brothers William Thomas and Andrew Hugh Thompson White

[Samuel] John Clarke White was born in Brookend, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on the 7th of April, 1900. In 1913, he immigrated with his family to Queensland, Australia. The family settled in Kaimkillenbun on the Darling Downs where they farmed sheep. This was a far cry from the flax farming that the were familiar with in Northern Ireland however, John's father's ailing health had prescribed a move to a warmer climate.

In the 1920's the White family purchased a number of parcels of land at Seventeen Mile Rocks near Brisbane and John and his brothers. William, Andrew (known as Thompson), Jemima (my paternal grandmother) and Violet enjoyed life in the small but close community on the banks of the Brisbane River.

When war was declared in September 1939, John Ckarke White enlisted in the Australian Army. He was 38 years and 9 months old, single, and determined to do his duty for his new homeland and his country of birth, Britain.

I know little yet of John Clarke White's wartime service, however, I have a box which belonged to my Anzac great uncle, which given to me after my father passed away. I examined the contents of the box for the first time yesterday, and discovered a tangle of wartime memorabilia waiting to be identified. That is going to be a project for 2015 and my findings, will become a blog post for Anzac Day 2016. Today for my Anzac post, I will post the photographs I have taken of the box and its contents, in memory of my great uncle. As you will see from the photographs, I have a lot of research ahead of me!

CORPORAL JOHN CLARKE WHITE.
SERVICE NUMBER: QX8682
ARMY NUMBER: 420439
POSTING ON DISCHARGE: 2 AUST RSD

LEST WE FORGET