A three-quarter length portrait, slightly to the left, showing White in a black suit; he holds a paper in his left hand and his right rests on a book on a table to the left. The portrait was commissed by his colleagues upon his retirement in 1902; it was presented to Lady White the following year.
William Henry White was apprenticed as a shipwright in the royal dockyard at Devonport. He then attended the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at South Kensington, 1864–67, attaining the highest honours. White then became professional secretary to Sir Edward James Reed, the chief constructor of the Navy. He later became secretary to the council of construction. White was involved in cruiser design in the 1870s, but left the Admiralty in 1883 to become designer and manager at the new Armstrong yard at Elswick-on-Tyne. He returned, however, to the Admiralty in 1885 as director of naval construction. Before his retirement in 1902, he was responsible for the design of large numbers of battleships, cruisers and other vessels. He also lectured at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich.
The artist's name supplied by Denis Browne, grandson of Sir William White, in September 2006.