Alfred George Hastings White (1859-1945)

Abstract

In 1872 the Royal Society occupied quarters in Old Burlington House. The wings of the new building had been completed and the Society awaited the furnishing of the rooms before moving to its present home. At that time Walter White was Assistant Secretary and Librarian; Henry B. Wheatley was Clerk and Henry White had charge of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers . The latter was the father of Alfred George Hastings White, the subject of this notice. Alfred White was born at Albany Street, Regent’s Park, on 9 February 1859. His mother was the daughter of George W. Hastings, who for some years was the Honorary General Secretary of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. Henry White, the father, came of an old Reading family. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his M.D., but he never practised as a doctor. Alfred White was educated at the North London Collegiate School for Boys in Camden Road, where he gained a reputation for a quickness in learning, especially with regard to languages. He left school at the early age of thirteen, in January 1873, to help his father at the Royal Society, joining the staff engaged upon the compilation of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers . In the same year, when the Society moved to its new quarters, he had much to do with arranging and shelving the books in the library. In this and the work on the Catalogue he gained valuable experience in library work which was a great help to him when he came to assist his father in preparing a catalogue of the Society’s library. This work occupied some years; and when Henry White died suddenly in 1880 from a heart attack in the Meeting Room of the Society it was left to Alfred White to complete the Library Catalogue and see it through the press. The first part was published in 1881 and the second in 1883.