Researching Chalkie White

White was born in Carlisle and served in the Royal Navy before becoming a schoolteacher, having previously undertaken a 4-year specialist course in Physical Education at Borough Road College, Isleworth. He played scrum-half for Old Creightonians, Penzance & Newlyn, Camborne RFC and Leicester Tigers before his career was ended after he was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease and lost his sense of balance.

He thus turned to coaching Leicester, while teaching at Nottingham High School. At this time the game was still amateur, and coaching frowned upon as "cheating", but White installed a professional attitude at Leicester. This took the Tigers to John Player Cup wins in 1979, 1980 and 1981, and losing finalists in 1978 and 1983 (at the time the cup was the only organised competition). The Leicester team including Paul Dodge, Peter Wheeler and Clive Woodward. Woodward would later coach England to victory in the 2003 World Cup.

White also had a keen eye for young talent and was not afraid to give players their first opportunity to play at the top level.

Chalkie was never appointed England coach, England preferring instead Mike Davis, probably because of White's outspoken views. Instead he became divisional technical administrator to the South West region, based in Taunton.

He died at age 76 in 2005 from vascular dementia.

White was born in Dublin in 1955. He started swimming at the age of 9, and swam with the Guinness and Kings Hospital clubs. After Donnacha O'Dea, he was one of the first Irish swimmers to be successful internationally. He was an international swimmer from 1968 to 1980, and was a 1,500m freestyle European champion in 1975. Later he coached two Olympic swimmers, in 1988 in Seoul and in 1992 in Barcelona.

In 1969 White was sixth in the European junior 1,500m freestyle and later finished tenth in the European senior 100m butterfly. Between 1972 and 1976 he attended Villanova University on a swimming scholarship. During his time there he won two Eastern Collegiate titles, at 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley, in 1975, and held five Villanova school records. He won the 1975 European Cup in the 1,500m freestyle at Athens. White won over 40 Irish national senior titles in freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and individual medley. He was the Texaco Swimming Sportstar of the Year in 1971.

As a masters swimmer White has won several European titles.

During the 1990s White worked alongside Gary O'Toole to expose sexual abuse and other corruption in the Irish Amateur Swimming Association.