Post by Dave Homewood on May 1, 2022 0:46:43 GMT 12
From the Press, dated 30 December 1967
Mr L. White, Aerial Photographer, Dead
“The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, Dec. 29.
One of the pioneers of New Zealand aviation and aerial photography, Mr Leo Lemuel White, died of a heart attack at his Mount Eden, Auckland, home today. He was 61.
Mr White is survived by his wife and two sons (Messrs R. L. White and P. J. White).
Born in Auckland on July 4, 1906, Mr White was educated at Ellerslie and Remuera Schools.
As a boy, be used to deliver newspapers, and during one of his rounds he saw a monoplane piloted by Joe Hammond flying over One Tree Hill. It was the deciding point of his life. Mr White first learned flying with the Walsh Brothers’ Flying School at Kohimarama and took his first aerial photograph of Devonport Ferry Wharf from a Boeing seaplane belonging to the school. It was piloted by another pioneer flyer, the late George Bolt.
Mr White joined the photographic staff of the “New Zealand Herald” about 1926, and soon proved himself when be covered the grounding of the Northern Steam Ship Company’s ship Manaia on Watchman Island, off the West Coast of the Coromandel Peninsula in 1926. He later covered the Hawke’s Bay earthquake in 1931.
One of his assignments with the “Herald” was the attempt by Wizard Smith, an Australian racing driver, to set a land-speed record on Ninety Mile Beach.
In 1935, Mr White formed a partnership with Mr Frank Stewart to establish New Zealand’s first aerial photography firm, then known as Stewart and White, Ltd. Mr White specialised from then in taking aerial pictures.
In 1938 he compiled “Wingspread,” a pictorial history of early New Zealand aviation. Mr White left the partnership in late 1939 to join the R.N.Z.A.F., and although plagued with asthma, rose to the rank of Flying Officer.
One of his duties with the Air Force was to provide illustrations for a monthly publication called “Contact.” He was also official R.N.Z.A.F. photographer in the Pacific.
After the war Mr White reestablished the photographic firm, but this time with Mr Frank Stewart's son, Mr C. D. Stewart, who was in charge of laboratory and aerial photography.
Mr White also founded the aviation journal, “Whites Magazine,” and the annual “White’s Air Directory.” One of Mr White’s works which was published widely was an aerial picture of a lenticular cloud formation. It remains the classic photograph of this type of cloud. From his thousands of aerial photographs, he also published “White’s Pictorial Reference of New Zealand.”
After the war, Mr White wrote “Fighters,” a history of New Zealand fighter squadrons in the Pacific during the Second World War.
Many of Mr White’s photographs are now in the Auckland War Memorial Museum, to which he donated bis historic collection of photographs of early New Zealand aviation.
Mr L. White, Aerial Photographer, Dead
“The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, Dec. 29.
One of the pioneers of New Zealand aviation and aerial photography, Mr Leo Lemuel White, died of a heart attack at his Mount Eden, Auckland, home today. He was 61.
Mr White is survived by his wife and two sons (Messrs R. L. White and P. J. White).
Born in Auckland on July 4, 1906, Mr White was educated at Ellerslie and Remuera Schools.
As a boy, be used to deliver newspapers, and during one of his rounds he saw a monoplane piloted by Joe Hammond flying over One Tree Hill. It was the deciding point of his life. Mr White first learned flying with the Walsh Brothers’ Flying School at Kohimarama and took his first aerial photograph of Devonport Ferry Wharf from a Boeing seaplane belonging to the school. It was piloted by another pioneer flyer, the late George Bolt.
Mr White joined the photographic staff of the “New Zealand Herald” about 1926, and soon proved himself when be covered the grounding of the Northern Steam Ship Company’s ship Manaia on Watchman Island, off the West Coast of the Coromandel Peninsula in 1926. He later covered the Hawke’s Bay earthquake in 1931.
One of his assignments with the “Herald” was the attempt by Wizard Smith, an Australian racing driver, to set a land-speed record on Ninety Mile Beach.
In 1935, Mr White formed a partnership with Mr Frank Stewart to establish New Zealand’s first aerial photography firm, then known as Stewart and White, Ltd. Mr White specialised from then in taking aerial pictures.
In 1938 he compiled “Wingspread,” a pictorial history of early New Zealand aviation. Mr White left the partnership in late 1939 to join the R.N.Z.A.F., and although plagued with asthma, rose to the rank of Flying Officer.
One of his duties with the Air Force was to provide illustrations for a monthly publication called “Contact.” He was also official R.N.Z.A.F. photographer in the Pacific.
After the war Mr White reestablished the photographic firm, but this time with Mr Frank Stewart's son, Mr C. D. Stewart, who was in charge of laboratory and aerial photography.
Mr White also founded the aviation journal, “Whites Magazine,” and the annual “White’s Air Directory.” One of Mr White’s works which was published widely was an aerial picture of a lenticular cloud formation. It remains the classic photograph of this type of cloud. From his thousands of aerial photographs, he also published “White’s Pictorial Reference of New Zealand.”
After the war, Mr White wrote “Fighters,” a history of New Zealand fighter squadrons in the Pacific during the Second World War.
Many of Mr White’s photographs are now in the Auckland War Memorial Museum, to which he donated bis historic collection of photographs of early New Zealand aviation.
