Patrick White - Childhood and Adolescence

Childhood and Adolescence

White was born in Knightsbridge, London, to an English-Australian father and an English mother. His family later moved to Sydney, Australia when he was six months old. As a child he lived in a flat with his sister, a nanny, and a maid, while his parents lived in an adjoining flat.

At the age of four White developed asthma, a condition that had taken the life of his maternal grandfather. White's health was fragile throughout his childhood, which precluded his participation in many childhood activities. He loved the theatre, which he first visited at an early age. This love was expressed at home when he performed private rites in the garden and danced for his mother’s friends.

At the age of ten, White was sent to Tudor House School, a boarding school in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, in an attempt to abate his asthma. It took him some time to adjust to the presence of other children. At boarding school he started to write plays. Even at this early age, White wrote about palpably adult themes. In 1924, the boarding school ran into financial trouble and the headmaster suggested that White be sent to a public school in England, a suggestion his parents accepted.

White struggled to adjust to his new surroundings at Cheltenham College, in Gloucestershire. He later described it as "a four-year prison sentence". White withdrew socially and had a limited circle of acquaintances. Occasionally, he would holiday with his parents at European locations, but their relationship remained distant.

While at school in London, White made one close friend, Ronald Waterall, an older boy who shared similar interests. White's biographer, David Marr, wrote that "the two men would walk, arm-in-arm, to London shows; and stand around stage doors crumbing for a glimpse of their favourite stars, giving a practical demonstration of a chorus girl's high kick ... with appropriate vocal accompaniment". When Waterall left school, White withdrew again. He asked his parents if he could leave school to become an actor. The parents compromised and allowed him to finish school early on the condition that he came home to Australia to try life on the land. His parents felt that he should work on the land rather than become a writer, and hoped that his work as a jackaroo would temper his artistic ambitions.

White spent two years working as a stockman at Bolaro, a station of 73-square-kilometre (28 sq mi) near Adaminaby on the edge of the Snowy Mountains in south-eastern Australia. Although he grew to respect the land and his health improved, it was clear that he was not cut out for this life.