White was born in the
townland of Drumaran, near
Belcoo, in
County Fermanagh in
Ulster, the northern
province in Ireland, about 1756, and not, as stated in the
Dictionary of Australian Biography and the
Australian Dictionary of Biography, in
Sussex, England. On 18 June 1778 John White qualified as a
surgeon's mate, first rate, following examination at the Company of Surgeons in London. He entered the
Royal Navy on 26 June 1778 as surgeon's mate aboard . He was promoted surgeon in 1780, serving aboard until 1786 when
Sir Andrew Hamond recommended him as principal
naval surgeon for the voyage of the
First Fleet to Australia. In March 1787 White joined the First Fleet at
Plymouth as surgeon for the convict transport
Charlotte. The medallion, or "
Charlotte Medal", is displayed in Australia's
National Maritime Museum. which described many Australian species for the first time.
Journal had 65 copper-plate engravings of birds, animals and plants, many of which were based on the water colour paintings of
Sarah Stone. It was soon translated into German and French. White was the first to describe
Litoria caerulea, a
species of frog
endemic to Australia and
New Guinea, which has several common names, including "White's tree frog". In 1792,
Thomas Watling, a convict artist newly arrived to the colony, was appointed by the government to assist John White in the production of copies of illustrations of various plants, insects and animals. A portrait of John White, a miniature on ivory, signed by Thomas Watling and dated "N.S.Wales 1792", is in the National Museum of Australia. According to his journal, White severely disliked Australia, describing it as: "a country and place so forbidding and so hateful as only to merit execration and curses." He applied for leave of absence in 1792, and received it in 1794, sailing for England on 17 December 1794 and later travelled to Ireland. In 1796 he resigned his position when given the option of returning to Australia. Earlier in 1796, White was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and on 10 March 1797, the Senate of the University of St Andrews conferred the degree of Doctor of Medicine on him. White was a surgeon on HMS
Royal William, stationed first at
Sheerness from 1799 and then at
Chatham Dockyard from 1803. He retired on a half pension in 1820, and died in
Worthing, England, in 1832. ==Legacy ==