T Angus White - A Talk by Barbara Francis

Who was Titus Angus White? And who was the man photographed with him in Auckland in about 1864?

While researching the life of White — shipwreck survivor (and victim), fluent speaker of Māori, husband, father, government translator, superintendent of the prison hulk 'Marion', and magistrate — Barbara Francis has found information that sheds new light on the ‘unidentified Māori man’, pictured with the Superintendent in a photograph in the Turnbull Library.

Come & hear her talk about her research and what she has found out about this interesting man and the times in which he lived.

Angus White was a Colonial Government public servant, initially a ‘Native Interpreter’ and then appointed Superintendent of the hulk Marion on Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour (in 1863) which housed around 200 Māori prisoners, the majority taken at the Battle of Rangiriri.

William Fox, one-time NZ Colonial Secretary, wrote that White’s fluency in Māori and his kind treatment of his charges convinced them “that the Pakeha did not, as many of them had been told, seek the destruction of the Maori or look upon him with unkindly feelings.”

A Friends of the Turnbull Library event. All welcome. Koha from non-members appreciated

About the speaker
Barbara Francis is a Wellington researcher, author of 'You Don’t Travel in China at the Full Moon: Correspondence of Agnes Moncrieff from China 1930-1945' (VUP 2016).

Photograph of Titus Angus White. Ref: PA2-2855. Alexander Turnbull Library.