White studied geology at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.

He attended Atkins Private School, Ingersoll Collegiate Institute and went on to graduate from the Royal Military College in June 1883.

He served on the Alaska boundary commission in 1903 and undertook an investigation into trans-Atlantic passenger steamships in 1906.

[1] White was interested in the concept of Canadian sovereignty, particularly as it affected claims to the Alaska boundary region.

In 1904 he proposed that the Geographic Board of Canada counteract American naming of territory by referring to the area as Ellesmere Land.