Agent TypePersonPlace of BirthHobart, Tasmania, AustraliaPlace of DeathToorak, Melbourne, AustraliaActivities & OccupationsMedical practitionerBenefactorsGenderMaleHistoryBorn in Hobart in 1874, White progressed from Alexander Sutherland's Carlton College (dux 1893) to the University of Melbourne (M.B.,1899; B.S., 1900; M.D., 1906), where he lived at Ormond College. From 1900 until 1902 he was at the Fremantle Quarantine Hospital, then demonstrator in bacteriology at the University of Melbourne, Junior Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Children's Hospital and later Senior R.M.O. Children's and Alfred Hospitals. He was assistant to Dr. Herman Lawrence (dermatologist), Sir Richard Stawell and Mr. Hamilton before practising privately. Appointed major, Australian Army Medical Corps, A.I. F., on 6 June 1917, White served in France with the 2nd Australian General Hospital, Boulogne. In 1930 he helped to found the Association of Physicians of Australasia and in 1938 its successor the Royal Australasian College of Physicians; he was a councillor of both and vice-president (1944-46) of the R.A.C.P. He chaired the medical staffs of both the Children's and St Vincent's hospitals before retiring in 1938. He served as honorary physician at St. Vincent's, the Children's and Melbourne District Nurses After Care Hospitals, and at the Victorian Foundling Hospital and Infants Home. White was a generous benefactor of medical, cultural and charitable organizations, including the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association (to endow the Sir Richard Stawell oration), the R.A.C.P., the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Rio Vista Gallery, Mildura, the National Theatre Movement of Australia, the National Trust of Australia and the Operation Youth Appeal of the Young Men's Christian Association. Always a strong supporter of the University of Melbourne, he gave money towards the establishment of a chair of medicine and the Rowden White Library in Union House. In 1955 Alfred set up the A. E. Rowden White and Edward R. White Foundation for Medical Research at the Royal Women's Hospital. Appointed C.M.G. in 1953, White was knighted in 1961. Unmarried, he lived for many years with a couple named Kilburn; their daughter Doris, whom he treated as his niece, later kept house and cared for him. He died on 15 January 1963 in his home at Toorak and was cremated. His will directed that the income from the bulk of his estate be used to finance medical and scientific research at the University of Melbourne under the name of the A. E. Rowden White Foundation. A portrait of him by W. B. McInnes is held by the university.Search records of this agent
White, Alfred E. (05/11/1874-15/01/1963). University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 14/02/2026, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/63194
