Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
Sydney Horace White was born in Auburn and had attended Auburn Public School. A postal assistant, Sydney lived with his parents in Rawson Street, Auburn. Sydney served in the Auburn Company, 39th Infantry CMF and he was a member of the Liberty Plains Lodge, United Ancient Order of Druids.
On enlistment at Warwick Farm on 6 September 1915, Sydney gave his age as ‘19 years 11 months’. He was one of six Auburn Memorial men who declared they were teenagers on enlistment. Private White embarked on the Port Lincoln 13 October 1915. He was too late for Gallipoli, but he must have reached Egypt by 31 December 1915 as he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star. In Egypt, White was allocated to the 13th Battalion, a unit that contained many ‘boys from Auburn’.
The battalion moved off to the Western Front, arriving in the French port city of Marseilles on 8 June 1916. The 13th Battalion, along with the rest of the 4th Australian Division, moved by train to the Nursery Sector in the far north of France, but were then brought back down to the Somme in early July ready for the battles of Pozières and Mouquet Farm.
Sydney received a gunshot wound to the neck on 1 August 1916, resulting in paraplegia. He was taken to the 4th London General Hospital at Denmark Hill, where he died of his wounds one month later on 17 September 1916. He was buried in the Nunhead (All Saints) Cemetery in south London. For his gravestone his parents chose the inscription: HE WAS LOVED AND HONORED BY US ALL
As White’s parents were deceased by 1923, his medals were sent to his older brother, Alfred Henry White, in Invercargill, New Zealand.
Sydney White is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn Public School First World War Honour Roll
- Auburn Boys Public School Great War Honour Roll
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
- 1914-1915 Star
