Padre White
The Lions Club of Herberton Inc has fundraised to erect a chapel at the Herberton Cemetery dedicated to Padre White .
PADRE WHITE AND THE ANZAC DAY DAWN SERVICE
The Dawn Service on ANZAC Day has become a solemn Australian and New Zealand tradition. It is taken for granted as part of the ANZAC ethos and few wonder how it all started. Its story, as it were, is buried in a small cemetery carved out of the bush some kilometres outside the northern Queensland town of Herberton.
Almost paradoxically, one grave stands out by its simplicity. It is covered by protective white- washed concrete slab with a plain cement cross at its top end. No epitaph recalls even the name of the deceased. The Inscription on the cross is a mere two words - "A Priest".
No person would identify the grave as that of a dedicated clergyman who created the Dawn Service, without the simple marker placed next to the grave only in recent times. It reads:
"Adjacent to, and on the right of this marker, lies the grave of the late Reverend Arthur Ernest White, a Church of England clergyman and padre, 44th Battalion, First Australian Imperial Force. On 25th April 1923, at Albany in Western Australia, the Reverend White led a party of friends in what was the first ever observance of a Dawn parade on ANZAC Day, thus establishing a tradition which has endured, Australia wide ever since."
Reverend White was serving as one of the padres of the earliest ANZAC's to leave Australia with the First AIF in November 1914. The convoy was assembled in the Princess Royal harbour and King George Sound at Albany WA. Before embarkation, at four in the morning, he conducted a service for all the men of the battalion. When White returned to Australia in 1919, he was appointed relieving Rector of the St John's Church in Albany. It was a strange coincidence that the starting point of the AIF convoys should now become his parish.
No doubt it must have been the memory of his first Dawn Service those many years earlier and his experiences overseas, combined with the awesome cost of lives and injuries, which inspired him to honour permanently the valiant men (both living and the dead) who had joined the fight for the allied cause. "Albany", he is quoted to have said, "was the last sight of land these ANZAC troops saw after leaving Australian shores and some of them never returned. We should hold a service (here) at the first light of dawn each ANZAC Day to commemorate them."
That is on ANZAC Day 1923 he came to hold the first Commemorative Dawn Service.
As the sun was rising, a man in a small dinghy cast a wreath into King George Sound while White, with a band of about 20 men gathered around him on the summit of nearby Mount Clarence, silently watched the wreath floating out to sea. He then quietly recited the words: "As the sun rises and goeth down, we will remember them". All present were deeply moved and news of the Ceremony soon spread throughout the country; and the various Returned Service Communities Australia wide emulated the Ceremony.
Eventually, White was transferred from Albany to serve other congregations, the first in South Australia, then Broken Hill where he built a church, then later at Forbes NSW. In his retirement from parish life, he moved to Herberton where he became Chaplain of an Anglican convent. However, soon after his arrival (on September 26, 1954) he died, to be buried so modestly and anonymously as "A Priest".
White's memory is honoured by a stained glass window in the all Soul's Church at Wirrinya, a small farming community near Forbes NSW. Members of the parish have built the church with their own hands and have put up what they refer to as "The Dawn Service Window", as their tribute to White's service to Australia.
Above from http://www.defence.gov.au/
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1921 (locum tenens) Father White was locum tenens during 1921 when Father Sharp's health was in decline. He continued at Christ Church until the appointment of the next Incumbent. During this short period he exercised a marked impression upon many people, particularly the younger folk. He was a good churchman and a sound teacher of the Faith, with personal qualities of spiritual influence that fired enthusiasm. He conducted later, in 1932, one of the most successful Missions to be held in the parish, during the Incumbency of Father Green. It was very well attended, for nine days. Many people saw this event as a turning point in their lives, with lasting gratitude to Father White for his deeply spiritual counsel, direction and instruction. His period as locum tenens came to an end with the induction of the Reverend Reginald Fenwick-Brown on 20 September |
Above from http.home.vicnet.net.au
ALBANY & A.N.Z.A.C
Father Arthur Ernest White has been credited with holding the first ANZAC Day Dawn Service in Australia at Albany. Reverend White sailed with the 44th Battalion from Albany and for two years served as a padre to the troops in France. Padre White returned from service in 1918 and was subsequently given the post of parish priest at the Anglican Church of St John the Evangelist in Albany. The dates given for the inaugural ANZAC Day Dawn Service vary, and 1918, 1923 and 1930 have all been suggested. Father White is quoted to have stated that, 'Albany was the last sight of land these ANZAC troops saw after leaving Australian shores. Many of them never returned. We should hold a service here at the first light of dawn each ANZAC Day to commemorate them'. Reports from the 1930 Dawn Service describe the scene, ‘where as the sun rose a wreath was cast into King George Sound by a man in a small boat'. White and around 20 men were gathered on Mount Clarence overlooking King George Sound, silently watching the wreath floating out to sea. At this service White softly recited the words, 'As the sun rises and goeth down, we will remember them'. After the service, White wrote in his service book 'First Dawn Service held in Australia'. Albany's role as the departure point for ANZAC troops leaving Australia to fight in WWI led to its selection as the site of the reconstructed Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, which was unveiled on the top of Mount Clarence in 1964. The original Memorial (1932) was located at Port Said in Egypt but was destroyed by rioters during the Suez crisis of 1956. The Memorial at Albany was re-cast from the original statue.
Above from http://www.albanygateway.com.au/