Paul Hamilton Hume WHITE

WHITE, PAUL HAMILTON HUME (THE 'JUNGLE DOCTOR') (b. Bowral, NSW, 26 Feb 1910; d. Roseville, NSW, 21 Dec 1992). Missionary doctor and author.

An only child whose mother was widowed in 1915, Paul White was educated at Sydney Grammar School and Sydney University (MB BS 1934) and represented each in turn as a middle distance runner. He was converted at sixteen through the Irish Evangelist W P Nicholson (q.v.) at a tent mission in Chatswood and he threw himself at once into Sunday school and youth work in his parish church and with the CSSM. He was a second year medical student in 1930 when the Evangelical Union and the Crusader Union were founded by Howard Guinness (q.v.). EU House Parties and Crusader Union Camps were thence forward to demand his leisure during vacations. He m. Mary Bellingham in 1936. They sailed for Central Tanganyika as missionaries with CMS in Jan 1938.

He was placed in charge of a hospital at Mvumi: there was no theatre, no electricity, no running water. He had to depend on kerosene and hurricane lamps for night work, and he had to find time to learn enough Chigogo and Swahili to understand and be understood. But the image of the 'Jungle Doctor' was born, and patients poured in from all quarters. Then personal tragedy struck. Mary, always frail, fell desperately ill and they were compelled to return home at the end of 1941.

For two years he served as Home Secretary of CMS and began his 'Jungle Doctor' broadcasts which were maintained until 1975. He also began to write his Jungle Doctor books which won world-wide acclaim and were translated into more than 80 languages. After 1943 he took up part-time medical practice leaving him time to work for Christian organisations in an honorary capacity. Thus he became general secretary of IVF Australia at a critical stage in its history when the EUs were recuperating after the ravages of an outburst of perfectionism and the student bodies rapidly expanding as returned soldiers flooded in. He threw all his energies into student evangelism. He won the confidence of Christian graduates and student leaders around Australia. New staff workers were appointed. There was a great upsurge in EU membership. Missions were held and the annual IVF conference was reestablished.

He was hardly less active in the Crusader Union and Scripture Union, serving on their councils and speaking at their meetings. His appeal to young and old owed a great deal to his superb skill as a story teller, always with humour and a spiritual punch-line. He never lost his freshness of mind, or his zeal for new ideas, or his practical genius as an innovator. In the 1950s, he moved into the new world of media and worked closely with the Anglican Radio Unit and the Church of England Television Society. He became chairman of Ambassador Press and of Pilgrim International, and was instrumental in establishing both ANZEA and the Emu Book Agencies, the one an Australian Christian publishing house, the other a distribution agency. Both aimed to promote Christian literature in the Australian community and to sidestep problems of overseas supply.

Mary died in 1970 after a long illness and Paul married Ruth Longe in June 1971. This brought him a fresh surge of life and activity and they were to enjoy 20 years of shared happiness. He was a life-long victim of asthma and his last years brought much ill-health in their train. But he remained buoyant and his mind was always fertile in seeking new ways of witness and new forms of outreach. Few men in his time were so versatile, so consistent and so practical in their love and service for Christ the Lord. He left a mark for God on hundreds if not thousands, of lives, leading young and old to direct personal faith in the Saviour. He was a man of rare vision, a great achiever for God's kingdom, one whose life was 'blazed out' for Him.

Paul White, Alias Jungle Doctor: an autobiography (Exeter, 1977) includes a list of the Jungle Doctor books

MARCUS LOANE