Dr John White FLS, Surgeon-General of NSW: a portrait by Thomas Watling
John White was born at Drumaran, County Fermanagh in north-western Ireland about 1756 – not England as is sometimes claimed.1 He entered the Royal Navy as a surgeon’s mate in 1778 and rose to naval surgeon; in this capacity he was appointed to serve as surgeon on the transport Charlotte in the First Fleet, which left Portsmouth for New South Wales in 1787.
