Lieutenant-Colonel G.W. White
5th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment
12th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps

… continuous active operations almost always in contact with the enemy. He has done outstanding work for units and has made himself an excellent Staff Captain through his energy, resource and unruffled temperament. He refused to go sick in spite of ill-health during the Dec/Jan operations, when his determination kept him at duty.

(M.B.E. recommendation, 8 July 1941)

Born on 6 July 1912 in Farnham, Surrey, Gilbert William White was a cricket player and commissioned in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps since completing Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1933. Following prewar service in Palestine fighting the Arab Revolt, White was posted to the newly formed 7th Armoured Division in 1940 as a staff officer. For “his energy, resource and unruffled temperament” during the Western Desert campaign, he was made Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in July 1941.

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