White's Flight

Pioneer wartime aviator, prisoner of war, escapee, businessman, politician and diplomat, Thomas Walter White (1888 – 1957) lived a full and extraordinary life.


A child of the empire, he grew up on patriotic tales of military adventure. Inspired by the early Australian flying demonstrations of famous daredevil Harry Houdini and French air ace Maurice Guilliaux, he passed up a promising army career to join the first intake of trainees for the Australian Flying Corps.


An opportunity for overseas service soon arrived when in early 1915 he was among the handful of freshly trained flying officers to be attached to the Indian Army during the Anglo-Indian invasion of southern Mesopotamia. Before the end of the year he had volunteered for the ‘suicide’ mission that led to his capture and imprisonment.


White’s epic journey across the deserts of Mesopotamia and Syria to prison camp in Turkey and his subsequent escape to Revolutionary Russia and ultimately Allied lines is one of the most extraordinary tales of the war. — a testament to the courage, endurance, compassion and tenacity of Tom White and his fellow prisoners and those who helped them.


Outspoken determination and generosity exemplified White’s subsequent successful political and diplomatic career. Indeed, he would be fondly remembered by Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop as ‘perhaps the best loved man of his generation’.