 He was chief administrator of the fund set up for the sufferers of the City of Glasgow Bank collapse in 1878.After his death, citizens of Glasgow erected a statue of him at Cathedral Square, Glasgow.John White was born at Hayfield, near Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, the only son of James White by Fanny Campbell, daughter of Alexander Campbell, Sheriff of Renfrewshire, of Barnhill, Dunbartonshire.