The White Family Archive

Copyright George White 2004

This material is scanned from the papers lent to me by George White and his family and, as such, is their copyright.

George lived to the age of 101, passing away in April 2006. He joined the company in about 1920 and was first stationed in Waterville - at that time a large station with special quarters for the unmarried staff (all men) and terraced houses for families. There was a very nice detached stone house for the superintendent. Operations were manual and went on round the clock - night shifts shared by most of the staff. However, although the hours of work may have been long in general everyone enjoyed a socially pleasant life style. There was cricket and tennis and golf links about a mile away. There was shooting (in the fall) and fishing on days off and dances in the mess hall and of course the beautiful nearby beaches. Children were generally sent to boarding schools in Dublin or Cork and there were invariably domestics to help with housework.

He was transferred to the station in the Azores at Horta, on the island of Fayal in the mid 1920's where there were similar working and living arrangements.