People Australia

Norman Hansen (Norm) White (1884-1969) miner, trade union official and geologist

Birth: 8 December 1884 at Silverton, Broken Hill, New South Wales, son of Allan White (b.1858), sheep farmer and hotel keeper, born at Launceston, Tasmania, and Eleanor (Lena or Helen), née Hansen, born in Sydney, NSW. Marriage: 26 December 1911 at St Cuthbert’s Anglican Church, Gormanston, Tasmania, to Ella Elizabeth Bernal (1891-1976), born at Hobart, Tasmania. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 20 November 1969 in hospital at Auckland, New Zealand; usual residence Sutherland Road, Point Chevalier, Auckland. 

• His father, manager of Buckalow station, NSW, deserted the family in about October 1889. Norm grew up in Broken Hill then, after his mother died, lived with her family in Sydney. After moving to the west coast of New Zealand, where he met with F. Shurpter? and P. McHickey, he was active during the Otira strike in 1909.
• White moved to Tasmania about 1910. He worked at Mt Lyell, joined the Amalgamated Miners’ Employees’ Association of Victoria and Tasmania and was elected to its executive.
• He was dismissed after being appointed by the union to enforce an 8-hour day; was dismissed for ‘trespass’. A strike ensued in which he was a central figure. The Mt Lyell strike in 1911 lasted for 10 weeks but ‘craft unions’ (i.e. the Federated Engine Drivers’ and Firemen’s Association) ‘shamelessly scabbed’.
• After being blacklisted he visited Sydney, then returned to Tasmania. A voluntary levy to support him after his dismissal brought in only £21. He and his family lived on King Island, then returned to New Zealand for a few years before settling in Victoria.
• Norman was superintendent of minerals production in the Department of Supply during World War II, based for a time at Glen Innes, NSW. About 1944 he moved to New Guinea, where he undertook government land evaluation work in the New Guinea highlands. He contributed articles to the Pacific Islands Monthly. From about 1954 he resided at Auckland, New Zealand. Reputedly he was appointed OBE.
• Cause of death: cerebro vascular accident (weeks), congestive heart failure (weeks), generalized atherosclerosis (years), myelofibrosis (years) and Hansens disease (years).
• Three of his sons served in the Australian Military Forces in World War II. One, Flight Sergeant Bryan de Bernal White (1921-1944), a miner, of the Royal Australian Air Force was lost in action and was believed to have been killed over Germany on 6 October 1944. Another, Lieutenant Geoffrey John (Geoff) White (1914-1947), also a miner, served in New Guinea with the Australian Imperial Force and died in a car accident in Port Moresby in May 1947.

Sources
International Socialist, 20 January 1912 p 4.