Jack White (officer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jack White (born May 22, 1879 in Broughshane , County Antrim as James Robert White , † February 2, 1946 in Belfast ) was a British officer, trade unionist and founder of the Irish Citizen Army , a socialist republican militia.

Life

He was the son of Sir George Stuart White . After attending Winchester College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , he joined the British Army as an officer at the age of 18 , fought in the Second Boer War and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order . He then served from 1901 to 1905 as an adjutant for his father, who was Governour of Gibraltar at the time. Here the Protestant White married the Catholic Mercedes "Dollie" Mosley against the opposition of both families and although he felt a lifelong aversion to the Catholic Church.

In 1807 he resigned from the British Army with the rank of captain and made extensive trips to Bohemia , England and Canada in the following years . He returned to Ireland in 1912 after the death of his father . Faced with the exploitation and repression of Irish workers on his arrival in Dublin, White quickly sided with the labor movement. He was instrumental in founding the Irish Citizens Army and its development and organization until he left the ICA in 1914 in a dispute with other leadership members.

White then commanded a division of the Irish National Volunteers and was stationed in France in an ambulance unit. In 1916 he returned after the Easter Rising to protest against the execution of the leaders. He was arrested in Wales in April 1916 and later imprisoned for sedition. By 1922 he served several short prison terms.

After the success of the October Revolution , White increasingly leaned towards the left and declared himself a "Christian Communist" in 1922 and was very active in the Irish Workers League and Workers Party of Ireland in the 1920s .

In 1931, now active in the Revolutionary Workers Party , he was arrested after a street fight, re-imprisoned and, after his release, restricted to Limavady district under the Special Powers Act of 1922 , even though his daughter went to school in Belfast. This location restriction was not lifted until 1935.

In 1936 White traveled to Spain to fight Franco's fascists in the civil war. There he came into contact with the anarchist CNT-FAI, whose political stance further alienated him from communism, and from 1937 became involved in the Spain and the World movement in London . In London he also married his second wife, Noreen Shanahan.

From 1938 onwards he lived relatively secluded on the family estate in Broughshane , which he inherited after his mother's death in 1935, until he died in a nursing home in 1946 as a result of cancer.

Web links

literature

personal data
SURNAME White, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES White, James Robert (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer, trade unionist and founder of the Irish Citizens Army
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Broughshane , County Antrim
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1946
Place of death Belfast