Albert White (VC)

Sergeant Albert White VC (1 December 1892 – 19 May 1917) was an English soldier from Kirkdale, Liverpool. Before the war, he worked as a coal trimmer in the merchant navy, serving aboard the White Star Line steamship *Laurentic*.

White joined the Royal Army Medical Corps on 23 October 1914. The following June, he transferred to the 2nd Battalion, The South Wales Borderers. He arrived at Gallipoli in July 1915 and saw action at Cape Helles and during the Suvla Bay landings. When the Allied forces withdrew from Gallipoli, White spent a brief period in Egypt before his battalion was sent to France in March 1916.

By the summer of 1916, White had been promoted to sergeant and was serving on the Western Front. He fought at Beaumont-Hamel during the Battle of the Somme in July. Although he was offered a field commission, White declined it and chose to remain with his battalion as a non-commissioned officer.

White was killed on 19 May 1917 during fighting east of Arras, near Monchy-le-Preux. His company, D Company, was attacking German positions at Devil's Trench when both officers leading the assault were killed. White then assumed command.

The advance was being held up by a German machine-gun position that had not been detected beforehand. Realising the danger it posed to his men, White went forward alone in an attempt to silence the gun. He reached within a few yards of the position before being struck by machine-gun fire and killed.

White was buried without a known grave and is commemorated on Bay 6 of the Arras Memorial to the Missing. His Victoria Cross was presented to his father, Thomas White, by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 21 July 1917.

White's Victoria Cross was announced in *The London Gazette* on 27 June 1917 (Supplement 30154, p. 6382):

“For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. Realising during an attack that one of the enemy's machine guns, which had previously not been located, would hold up the whole advance of his Company, Sjt. White, without the slightest hesitation and regardless of all personal danger, dashed ahead of his Company to capture the gun. When within a few yards of the gun he fell riddled with bullets, having thus willingly sacrificed his life in order that he might secure the success of the operations and the welfare of his comrades.”