John Lawrence Whitham CMG DSO (1881 - 1952)

Ancestors

Biography

Lieutenant General John Whitham CMG DSO was an officer in the Australian Army who held senior commands in the 1930s and early 1940s. He served his adopted country in three wars: Second Boer War, The Great War and Second World War.

John Lawrence Whitham was born on 7th October 1881 in Jamālpur, Bihar, West Bengal, India, second son of Lawrence Yates Whitham, a Major in the Indian Army who brought his wife Ellen Brien and family to Tasmania in 1886 and joined the local police force. ^[1] As soon as John was old enough, in 1998, he enlisted in the Tasmanian Militia.

In 1902 John went to the Second Boer War in South Africa as quartermaster sergeant of the Tasmanian company of the 3rd Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse. ^[2] He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal. He remained in the militia following the war, being commissioned as a Lieutenant. With the formation of the Australian Imperial Force at the outbreak of the First World War, on 26th August 1914 John was promoted to Captain and given command of a company of the 12th Australian Infantry Battalion. ^[3] The battalion embarked for the Middle East at Hobart on 20th October 1914 aboard HMAT Geelong A2. ^[4] He landed with the battalion at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915 and led his company throughout the first day until he was wounded and evacuated.

He rejoined the battalion in May, as a Major and its second-in-command. In August he briefly commanded the battalion, but shortly afterward was invalided ill and did not return to Gallipoli. In Egypt in February 1916 he was appointed deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster general for the 2nd Australian Division, then preparing to deploy to the Western Front. Promoted Lieutenant Colonel, in May 1917 John was given command of the 52nd Australian Infantry Battalion, a unit formed partly from his old 12th Battalion. Several weeks later he led his battalion throughout the bloody fighting beyond Ypres, Belgium. ^[5] John was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in January 1916; ^[6] following his work at Villers-Bretonneux in 1918 he was appointed Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). ^[7] He was Mentioned in Despatches (equivalent to today's Commendation for Gallantry) three times. ^[8][9][10] For this additional war service he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

In 1918, John was sent as an instructor to the Senior Officers' School at Aldershot, England. Here he met, and on 12th April 1920 married, war widow Olive Young nee Le Pays, three years his junior, in St John the Evangelist Parish Church, Littlewick Green, Berkshire. ^[11] He thereby became step-father to Olive's two young children, aged about nine and eight years. The family came to Australia aboard the Osterley, departing England on 15th January 1921. ^[3][12]

Family name	Given name	Age	Year arrived	Month	Ship	Captain
WHITHAM	COL	40	1921	FEB	OSTERLEY	COAD A J
WHITHAM	MRS	37	1921	FEB	OSTERLEY	COAD A J
WHITHAM	CHILD WITH	10	1921	FEB	OSTERLEY	COAD A J
WHITHAM	CHILD WITH	9	1921	FEB	OSTERLEY	COAD A J

Between the world wars, John served as director of organisation and personal services. Promoted to Brigadier, he served as district commandant of military forces in Tasmania (1933-35), Queensland (1935-37) and Victoria (1937-39). When he and Olive arrived in Brisbane to take up his new command in June 1935 they received considerable media attention, with numerous articles in the Queensland newspapers. ^[13]

Too old for active service in the Second World War, he commanded the Volunteer Defence Corps in Victoria. ^[14] For his third war service he was awarded the Australia Service Medal 1939-1945.

In 1944 John transferred to part-time duty and retired in 1946 as an honorary Lieutenant General. He and his wife retired to Wahroonga, New South Wales.

John died of cancer, aged 70 years, on 12th May 1952 in the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, New South Wales ^[15] and is buried in the Botany Cemetery (now Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park), Matraville. ^[16] John was survived by his wife and step-children. Although he had no children of his own, John clearly influenced his step-children as his step-son served in the Australia Artillery during the Second World War and his step-daughter's husband attained the rank of Wing Commander in the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve as a medical officer.

Sources

1. ↑ Name: John Lawrence Whitham Gender: Male Birth Date: 7 Oct 1881 Baptism Date: 6 Nov 1881 Baptism Age: 0 Baptism Place: Jumalpur, Bengal, India Father: Lawrence Whitham Mother: Ellen FHL Film Number: 510866 Source Information Ancestry.com. India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014
2. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: John Whitham; accessed 12 Jun 2018
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Australian War Memorial nominal roll: Lieutenant Colonel John Lawrence Whitham; accessed 12 Apr 2022
4. ↑ Australian War Memorial embarkation roll: Captain John Lawrence Whitham; accessed 12 Apr 2022
5. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: John Whitham; accessed 12 Jun 2018
6. ↑ Australian Honours: CMG; accessed 12 Apr 2022
7. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: DSO; accessed 12 Apr 2022
8. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: MiD 28 Jan 1916; accessed 12 Apr 2022
9. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: MiD 4 Jan 1917; accessed 12 Apr 2022
10. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards: MiD 31 Dec 1918; accessed 12 Apr 2022
11. ↑ UK FreeBMD Marriage Index Jun qtr 1920, vol 2c, page 1365
12. ↑ Public Records Office of Victoria - Search Terms: WHITHAM - Ship: OSTERLEY - Date Arrived: 1920 to 1922
13. ↑ John Lawrence Whitham and Olive Whitham correspondence; accessed 4 Dec 2018
14. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: John Whitham; accessed 12 Jun 2018
15. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #12379/1952
16. ↑ Find-a-Grave

See also

• Burness, Peter. Whitham, John Lawrence (1881–1952). Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 12 Jun 2018.
• Wikipedia: John Whitham; retrieved 00:41, December 6, 2018.