Early Life
Jack White was born in 1879, at Whitehall, in Broughshane, County Antrim, Ireland. An only son, he initially followed in the footsteps of his father, Sir George Stuart White, being educated at Winchester College, and later at Sandhurst Military Academy. At the age of eighteen, White saw service with the 1st Gordon Highlanders in the Boer War in South Africa. He was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order, The London Gazette of 2 July 1901 in its DSO citation reporting
James Robert White, Lieutenant, The Gordon Highlanders. For having, when taken prisoner, owing to mistaking advancing Boers for British troops, and stripped, escaped from custody and run six miles, warning Colonel de Lisle, and advancing with him to the relief of Major Sladen's force.
White started to develop a dislike for the British ruling classes while in South Africa. It is said that at the battle of Doorknop he was one of the first to go over the top. Looking back, he saw one 17-year-old youth shivering with fright in the trench. An officer cried "shoot him". White is said to have aimed his pistol at the officer and replied, "Do so, and I'll shoot you".
Between 1901 and 1905, he served as aide-de-camp to his father, who was then Governor of Gibraltar, and it was here that he met Mercedes 'Dollie' Mosley, the daughter of a Gibraltar business family and a Roman Catholic. Despite family objections on both sides (the Whites were Anglican), the couple married. White continued his military service in India and Scotland.
Read more about this topic: Jack White (trade Unionist)
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“Women who marry early are often overly enamored of the kind of man who looks great in wedding pictures and passes the maid of honor his telephone number.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The great passion in a man’s life may not be for women or men or wealth or toys or fame, or even for his children, but for his masculinity, and at any point in his life he may be tempted to throw over the things for which he regularly lays down his life for the sake of that masculinity. He may keep this passion secret from women, and he may even deny it to himself, but the other boys know it about themselves and the wiser ones know it about the rest of us as well.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)