Description
Tibet Medal 1904, no bar, 96 Sergeant Alfred Louis Percy White, 1 of 8 members of the R.E. attached to No 12 Company, Queen’s Own Sappers and Miners in the Tibet Campaign. Later Sub Conductor in P.W.D.
Officially engraved: “96 Sergt A.L.P. White R.E. 12 Co 2nd Q.O. S.&M.”
Very unusual unit, confirmed on the medal roll and not entitled to a clasp, it records only 8 British Officers and NCO’s medals were issued medals to this unit.
There was a Major, 4 Lieutenants and 3 Sergeants including White who were all members of the Royal Engineers being attached to the 12th Company of the 2nd Queen’s Own Sappers and Miners, of whom, 1 of the Officers, Lieut Garstin was killed at Gyantse. Only about a half company of the 2nd Sappers and Miners were part of the Force.
6 Men earned the medal without bar, with 2 of the Officers earning the Gyantse Clasp.
Alfred Louis Percy White was born circa January 1881 in Dorchester, Dorset, the son of Henry John White and Elizabeth Ann Percy.
He went from the Royal Engineers to a long career in the Indian Army with the Public Works Department for 40 years being commissioned as a Sub Conductor in 1907.
He died in St John of God Hospital, in Perth, Australia on 22nd December 1947.
Having recently joined the Army he saw his first Military Service during the Boer War.
He served with the 9th Field Company, Royal Engineers as a Sapper, earning a Queen’s South Africa Medal, with bars, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Cape Colony, Transvaal, SA 1901.
After Tibet, he went on to India where he would spend many years of his career. He married Daisy Edith Pratt in Bangalore, Madras, India on 19th July 1906.
He was commissioned on 15th May 1907 with the Indian Army and was appointed as a Sub Conductor with the Public Works Department.
During WW1 he also served, only in India, returning to the Royal Engineers as a Warrant Officer 1st Class earning only a British War Medal for his service.
1934 India Office List shows him as an Executive Engineer with the Bengal Senior Service of Engineers.
He continued his service in India all the way until his death during 1947. He died in Perth, Australia on 22nd December 1947. It appears he was in the country on Holiday intending to visit his daughter who had moved from Calcutta to Brisbane.
Probate reads: “White, Alfred Louis Percy otherwise Alfred of 11 King Edward Court, 55 Chowringhee Calcutta India.
Died on 22nd December 1947 at St John of God Hospital in Perth, Australia. Effects, £1795.”
His death notice in the West Australian, Perth, 24th December 1947:
“WHITE – On December 22 1947, At St John of God Hospital, Subiaco, Alfred Louis Percy White, of Calcutta, India.
Dearly beloved husband of Daisy and devoted father of Richard (Sheffield, England), and Elizabeth (Mrs Cullen, Brisbane, formerly of Calcutta), aged 56 years.”
Some information on the company in Tibet from Empire’s First Soldiers by D.P. Ramachandran 2008.
“No 12 Company of the Sappers were part of a force under Colonel Francis Younghusband which went to Tibet in 1903, to thwart the plans of that country to forge an alliance with Russia.
They marched 400 miles from Siliguri to Lhasa over arid, windswept plains, negotiating passes at 17,000 feet in wet weather, finally crossing the river Tsangpo (Brahmaputra as it traverses India) in flood, braving a current of more than 5 miles an hour.
They worked on the Rangpo-Gangtok Road in Sikkim, and carried out the demolition of the Fortified Post of Palla and a building called ‘Chinese House’, prior to the storming of Gyantse Zong.
The Company returned from the Mission via Nathula in 1904.”
