“Fathered” 8000 New Zealanders: “Tiny” White Folds His Wings

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23352, 7 September 1950, Page 8

“Fathered” 8000 New Zealanders: “Tiny” White Folds His Wings

Under _ the British Commonwealth air training scheme in Canada during the Second World War about 153.000 recruits graduated for aircrew duties. It provided a network of 150 flying fields and at the height of its operalions, 10.000 aircraft were living 2,000,000 miles a day. Numerically, New Zealand’s part in this _ huge scheme was small. The Dominion's 8000 men were scattered among 94 stations stretching from the Arctic Circle south to Ihe Bahamas. Amid strangers and far from home, their morale sometimes lagged specially when Japan entered the war. Many of the trainees thought that they should be fighting in the Pacific rather than training as airmen in Canada. The Human Touch The man who acted as '“father” to these New Zealanders while training in Canada was Group Captain T, W. (Tiny) White, C.8.E.. E.D.. who has just returned from / the position of Director of Reserves at Air Headquarters of N.Z.R.A.F. He was wellknown to many Gisborne residents. "Tiny”—his height is officially listed as sft. I. LJin. —is an essentially human individual. This was demonstrated many times during his fiveyear term as chief air liaison officer for New Zealanders in Canada. He tackled his problem forcefully. He made a point of trying to visit every locality where New Zealanders were stationed once a month or once every six weeks at Ihe outside. Sometimes. if there were only a few men on a particular station, he had them flown in to headquarters. By this means he kept them in touch with the news at home, told them just what progress New Zealanders were making in various theatres of war. But he did much more than this. He received many letters from anxious parents in New Zealand. The tenor of most of them was: “My little Willie is in Canada, and I haven't heard from him for a long time . .

.So “Tiny” White picked out the little Willies on his visits to outlying stations, and told them to write home. "And very effective, too, it was," he says. “It only needed one telling to turn most of them into quite good correspondents.” Shot Down Over Europe

In the First World War “Tiny” was in the New Zealand force which took Samoa but later transferred from the Army to the Royal Flying Corps. He was shot down when 18,000 ft. above Europe, and ended the war as a prisoner.

Later he was Director of .Aeronautical Tests in Fiji and chief pilot for East Coast Airways. He surveyed most of the air routes in the West Coast and Central Otago areas for New Zealand Airways, and was the first man to land a plane at Mount Cook. He was also closely associated with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and the 8700 flying hours to “Tiny's” credit include many piled up in flying the Sydney-Newcastle air service with him.