|
 Born
1915, the 2nd son of Stanley McKellar White and
Florence Amy Menzies,
Dr. Stanley Boyd McKellar White
did his training at Sydney University and met his wife Christine
Dickey, through family friends. They married in Sydney on March
23rd 1940 and then moved to Tasmania to take up a position at
the Royal Hobart Hospital. They lived in Snug and Hobart until
around 1941. Their son (Kenneth) was born in December 1940 at
St. Margaret’s in Hobart.
When war with Japan was declared Boyd joined up
and was given the rank of Captain. When he left home it was by
train to Adelaide, another train to Alice Springs and then by
truck to Darwin. After spending 3 months in Darwin, in December
1941 he was sent to the island of Ambon in the Moluccas,
Indonesia. When the war was finally over in 1945 and they were
bringing home all the Prisoners of War from the East his family
would sit and listen to the radio every time a prison camp was
opened and the names of the prisoners were broadcast throughout
Australia. Boyd's name was never mentioned and he seemed to
vanish into the blue.
It would have been late 1945 that the four mass graves on Ambon
were opened and amongst the remains of soldiers and personnel
was Boyd’s medical bag and dog tags. It then came out that when
they received news that the Japanese were sweeping south down to
the islands and were due to invade, he was one of a couple of
doctors who elected to stay on Ambon with the severely wounded
who were unable to be transported before the Japanese arrived.
After they were overtaken by the Japanese approximately 300
prisoners were ordered to dig a huge communal grave, then they
were lined up, beheaded and tossed into the hole and buried.
Years later this became known as the Laha massacre and was
apparently in retaliation for the sinking of a Japanese
minesweeper. Unfortunately, Dr White has never been formally
identified. 
Dr. Boyd McKellar White was 26
years old.
His younger brother Flying Officer
Kenneth McKellar White who served with 62 Squadron RAF was also
a casualty of war dying as a POW in Rangoon, Burma.
We would like to
thank Ken White and Carolyn Harris for the above photos and
information |
