Our People

Now happily retired, Phillip (Phil) White has had two parallel careers, one in the military (Army Reserve) and the other in education. After graduating from OCTU in 1977 Phil was posted to A Squadron 10 Light Horse which he commanded from 1991-1993. After staff and training appointments at HQ 13 Brigade and 5 Training Group, from 1998 – 2001 he was Commanding Officer of the Western Australian University Regiment before serving as Commandant of the Land Warfare Centre-WA from 2003 - 2006. For this service Phil was recognized in the 2005 Queen’s Birthday Honors list where he was appointed as a Member in the Military Division of the Order of Australia for “exceptional services in the fields of leadership and training as CO WAUR, Project Team Leader at RMC-A and Commandant at LWC-WA”. From 2007 - 2008 Phil commanded the WA based 13 Brigade after which he was posted to Army HQ as a Senior Project Officer (2009-10) before transferring to the Standby Reserve in January 2011.

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To Phil’s great delight he was appointed as the Honorary Colonel of the 10th Light Horse Regiment (the famous 10th) on 1 July 2011 – a position he still holds. Phil is also Patron of the WA Light Horse Organization. In addition to ad hoc military and leadership themed speaking events, for many years now Phil has been proud to speak at annual school, RSL and community based ANZAC services in the weeks surrounding ANZAC day.

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In civilian life, Phil holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Management, a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Graduate Diploma of Education. At the end of 2021, after 45 years of service, he retired as the Principal of Melville Senior High School but was recalled to duty in January 2022 as the Deputy Incident Manager (Schools) in the WA Education Department’s COVID-19 Incident Management Team, a position he held until June 2022. Phil is married to Carol Strauss who, after retiring as the Principal of Ashdale Secondary College now runs a part time (but busy) consultancy in educational leadership. Together they have three adult children and two beautiful grandsons. Besides mountain bike riding, Phil rides a road bike and for the fun of it regularly tackles the high mountain passes of the Pyrenees, the French Alps and the Dolomites in Italy.