The eldest son of Mr and Mrs Woolmer White, of Southleigh, Hampshire and Salle, Norfolk he is included on our war memorial as the son of the village ‘landlord’. Who became Sir Woolmer Rudolph Donati White, 1^st Baronet White of Salle on 29^th June 1922.

Lynton was born on 5^th May 1886 in Southsea. He had two sisters – Marguerite and Pauline. His brother – Rudolph Dymoke White, two years his junior would later inherit his father’s title and property.

Lynton was sent away to board at school in Cheltenham and was certainly there during the 1901 census, aged 14 years. He was also educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. His career started in the 1^st (King’s) Dragoon guards and he was gazetted (published in The London Gazette) as 2^nd Lieutenant on 7^th May 1905, being promoted to Lieutenant on 25^th March 1910. By the 1911 census he was with his Regiment in India and it was on 29^th June in this year that he married Dorothea Elizabeth Haughton at St. Mary Abbot’s, Kensington. Her father, Walter Raleigh Haughton V.D., M.I.C.E., was formerly the engineer in chief of the East Bengal State Railway so we might assume they met in India. Dorothea was his only daughter having been born in Calcutta, India 13^th August 1886 to his wife Lillian (nee Bailey).

On August 4^th 1914 when Britain declared war on Germany Lynton was home on leave in the U.K. As a result he was attached to the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays) Regiment who at that time were in Aldershot, part of the 1st Cavalry Brigade in Cavalry Division. His own regiment being still in Lucknow, India as part of the Lucknow Cavalry Brigade they were to move to France as part of the 1st Indian Cavalry Division, and landed in Marseilles 7 November 1914.

The 2nd Dragoon Guards moved to France and on 16^th September became part of the Cavalry Division that was renamed the 1^st Cavalry Division. As part of the Expeditionary Force’s Cavalry Division, Lynton had already been in action through the retreat from Mons, including fighting at the Battle of Mons and the Battle of Le Cateau.From there the Brigade camped at Nery under the command of Brigadier-General C.J. Briggs. The 1st Cavalry Brigade consisted of three cavalry regiments: the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays), 5th Dragoon Guards and the 11th Hussars supported by L Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery.  In the ensuing battle in the village of Nery the brigade were further assisted by units from 4th Cavalry Brigade, I Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery and the 1st Middlesex Regiment (19th Brigade).

The 1^st Cavalry brigade defeated the German 4th Cavalry Division, despite an unequal number of men. The 1st Cavalry Brigade had around 1,500 men and the same number of horses, 6 guns and 6 machine guns.  With the addition later of 1st Middlesex Regiment this added another 800 men with 2 machine guns and I Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, comprised 8 guns (its own 6 and 2 others from a reduced battery).They were horribly outnumbered by the forces of the German 4th Cavalry Division who comprised around 5,000 men and the same number of horses, 12 guns and 6 machine guns. Despite this the 1st Cavalry Brigade was victorious capturing 8 German guns in the battle, and 4 more the next day. Three Victoria Crosses were awarded to soldiers of L Battery whose unit was almost destroyed.

All of the major combatants in World War I began the conflict with cavalry forces. Used for logistical support, reconnaissance, carrying messengers, as well as pulling artillery, ambulances, and supply wagons; horses were better than mechanized vehicles at travelling through deep mud and over rough terrain. Tanks were beginning to take over the role of the cavalry charge and the use of trench warfare, barbed wire and machine guns rendered traditional cavalry almost obsolete. The presence of horses often increased morale among the soldiers at the front, but the value of horses, and the increasing difficulty of replacing them, was such that by 1917 some troops were told that the loss of a horse was of greater tactical concern than the loss of a soldier. 

Unfortunately Lynton was severely injured in the Battle of Nery and was taken, with other injured men, to Chateau de Baron. He was to die here three days later from his wounds, 10^th September 1914 and was buried in the grounds of the chateau. Later he was removed to the Baron Communal cemetery, Oise where he lies with 16 other Commonwealth soldiers from the First World War, all dying in September 1914.

Probate was granted in London on 25^th November 1914 leaving all his effects to his widow Dorothea, totalling £841. 16s. She died 19^th August 1926, at 50 years of age ‘without issue’.