When the First World War broke out, he returned home from a business trip and volunteered for active service with the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster).

White was 20 years old, and a private when, on 7/8 March 1917 on the Dialah River, Mesopotamia, the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

This signaller during an attempt to cross a river saw the two Pontoons ahead of him come under heavy machine-gun fire, with disastrous results.

White promptly tied a telephone wire to the Pontoon, jumped overboard, and towed it to the shore, thereby saving an officer's life and bringing to land the rifles and equipment of the other men in the boat, who were either dead or dying.

Although a Victoria Cross holder he was not permitted to join the Home Guard during World War II because his Russian-born father had failed to be naturalised as a British subject.

[citation needed] After his service, White returned to Manchester and undertook an apprenticeship as a trainee pattern cutter in a local factory.