Leonard Lisle Oliver White

Mr Leonard Lisle Oliver White was born in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia in 1880.

He was the son of Robert White, a master mariner, and Elizabeth Oliver who were married in Sydney on 8 June 1871. His father hailed from Arbroath, Scotland whilst his mother hailed from London. 

This was his father’s second marriage as he had previously been married in Sydney in 1862 to Ellen Davis, a native of Montgomeryshire, Wales who apparently died in 1864. From that marriage Leonard had a half-sibling, Ernest John (1863-1885) who died aged just 22. 

He may have had at least one full-sibling or another half-sibling¹, but this is not certain and many other details about his early life remain unclear. 

Leonard’s parents, reportedly well-known in the community of Lismore, ran a store and were co-owners of a three-masted cargo schooner of 181 tonnes, the Lismore, of which Robert was the captain. 

On 1 November 1891 whilst off Clarence Heads in Sydney, Lismore collided with the steamer Eurimbla, causing the Lismore to founder in only minutes, resulting in the death of Captain Robert White and a cook (A. Shepherd). Nine survived the tragedy, which included an eleven-year-old Leonard and his mother, the latter who sustained injuries to her legs.²

Mrs White and the co-owner of Lismore, Emily Oldham Pratt, were awarded $2500 damages following a lawsuit. 

How long Leonard had been living in Britain by 1912 is not certain, but it is speculated that he arrived there sometime around 1909. He was married in Southampton on 20 September 1911 to Alice Maud Mason (b. 3 September 1882), a native of that city. 

Miss Mason was the daughter of Alfred Mason, an agricultural labourer, and Elizabeth, née Ember. She, like several of her sisters, worked as a head laundress at the time of her marriage. She was shown on the 1911 census as a single woman living with her widowed mother at 248 Romsey Road, Shirley, Southampton. 

Leonard and Alice would have no children and apparently made their home during the brief time of their marriage at 248 Romsey Road, Southampton.

White was on board the Titanic for her delivery trip from Belfast to Southampton and when he signed-on for the maiden voyage on 4 April 1912 he gave his address as 248 Romsey Road, Southampton. His previous ship had been the Osterley and as a saloon steward he received monthly wages of £3, 15s.

Leonard White died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified. Although there is no known reference to his death in Australian newspapers, the following death notice appeared in The Hampshire Independent:

WHITE -- April 15th, at sea on S.S. Titanic, Leonard Lisle Oliver White, age 31, the dearly beloved husband of Alice Maud White. Gone but not forgotten. Australian papers please copy.

His widow Alice was remarried in 1917, becoming Mrs Edmund George Tindall (1891-1962). Her new husband, nearly a decade her junior, hailed from Scarborough, Yorkshire and worked as a grocer and later in an electrical store. The couple had only one child, a daughter named Vera Maud (later Mrs Cedric Morris Edwards) who was born on 27 March 1919.
Alice died in Southampton on 25 August 1957, just shy of her 75th birthday. Her widower Edmund died in 1962 and her daughter Vera in Southampton in July 2006.