John White was born of Scottish parents in a bridge-building camp within the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, Canada, when the Canadian Pacific Railway was under construction. Later in his childhood he lived in the Hebrides and Western Isles. A sea faring man, he also participated in the First World War.
In The Wattle and the Rowan White pays tribute to the help given him by Ethyl Fielding (q.v.), founder of the Australian Poetry Lovers' Society, and Harry Pearce (q.v.), honorary secretary and treasurer of the Society. White was a member, later president, of the Society. He has been also listed as a treasurer for the Henry Lawson Memorial and Literary Society and a member of the committee formed to fund and create a memorial to Henry Lawson (q.v.), in Footscray Hill Park.
