Ethelbert White was born at Isleworth in Middlesex on 26 February 1891. He was the son of Bernard Richard White.  Ethelbert was educated at Bayliss House, Slough and St George’s College, Weybridge. In 1911 he entered St John’s Wood School of Art and studied under the watercolourist Leonard Walker. In 1911 White married Elizabeth Crofton Dodwell, always known as Betty. The couple shared a liking for a simple and unconventional way of life, full of fun, friendship, music and travel. They lived in a quaint little 18th-century cottage in Hampstead Grove, Camden, a place where in their later years, Harrods would deliver their weekly provisions on account. They were noted bohemians, travellers, singers and collectors of folk songs. The couple travelled the countryside in their gypsy caravan ‘Reading’, White producing paintings of village life and Betty played the lute. They regularly gave public recitals and performed their favourite folk songs and sea shanties. Obviously happy with each other’s company, they were married for more than fifty years and were eagerly sought guests at the studio parties of other contemporary artists. Augustus John, Sir Alfred Munnings, Christopher and Wynne Nevinson were all close friends, the latter perhaps providing the greatest influence on White’s artistic evolution. In 1912, White is known to have visited Belgium, Italy and worked in an atelier in France. White was a prolific and versatile artist and book illustrator. He was a painter in oils and watercolour and a wood engraver of agricultural subjects, still lifes and figures. He was also a skilled wood engraver and an early exponent of the lino-cut. His strong sense of design also enabled him to become a successful poster designer. Although his subjects were essentially English in character, he travelled widely in Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Ireland and Cyprus. His landscapes and agricultural scenes were similar in style to contemporary artist Paul Nash. The couple were friends with both Mark Gertler and Christopher Nevinson. White and Nevinson painted a futurist version of Hampstead Heath titled Tum-Tiddly-Tum-Tum-Pom-Pom for the 1913 exhibition at Holland Park Skating Rink held by the Allied Artists’ Association (formed in 1908 by the influential critic Frank Rutter and a group of artists, who disapproved of the conservatism of the NEAC). During the Great War, White registered as a Conscientious Objector and was put to work on the land. He exhibited at London Group and New English Arts Club from 1916. That same year, he was elected to the Society of Wood Engravers, becoming a member of the London Group in 1921. Nina Hamnett (sometimes called the Queen of Bohemia) is known to have painted a joint portrait of the couple in 1918, depicting them playing lutes at the dinner table. White’s first one-man show was held at the Carfax Gallery in 1921. Whilst working as an illustrator for the Beaumont Press, he produced engravings for Herbert Read’s Eclogues (1919) and Richard Jeffries’s The Story of My Heart (1923). He is also known to have illustrated books for the Golden Cockerel Press. When reviewing a London Group exhibition in 1920 Athenaeum suggested that: ‘Mr Ethelbert White is another fantasist whose work rather suggests a strong sympathy with that of Mr Paul Nash.’ In the inter-war period, White regularly exhibited with the London Group and served on their hanging committee. In 1921, he was elected a member of the Society of Wood Engravers. In 1921 Robert Bevan organised an exhibition of Un Groupe de Peintres Anglais Modernes at the Galerie Druet in Paris to present their own work and that of Stanislawa de Karlowska, Harold Gilman, E M O’Rourke Dickey, McKnight Kauffer, John Nash, Edward Wadsworth, William Roberts and White. In 1927 White designed posters for the London Underground Group. In 1938 he was appointed art editor of the Penguin Modern Classics series. White was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy and the Royal Watercolour Society.  White died on 5 March 1972. A memorial exhibition of his work was held at the Fine Art Society in 1979. His work is represented in many public collections. His oil on canvas Under the Hills (1923) was presented to the Tate by the Contemporary Art Society in 1924. A good body of White’s landscapes and townscapes may be found in the British Government Art Collection. His painting The Waterfall may be found in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum.