Capt. William White joined the Bermuda Regiment as a teenager. Now he's the Governor's right-hand man.

For on December 1 he replaced Capt. Brian Gonsalves as Governor Lord Waddington's aide-de-camp.

The 31-year-old took time out from his hectic schedule to sit with The Royal Gazette and talk about the road his military life has taken.

Capt. White laughed at the idea that he had planned a military career as some of his predecessors had done.

Instead he was drafted in 1984 when all he had plans of being at the time was a teenager and "was working hard at it,'' he said.

He was a full-time student at Bermuda College at that time and could have applied to defer his military service but instead chose to "get it out of the way''.

Capt. White ended up in boot camp in January, 1985 and said the experience "started to open my eyes as to what the Bermuda Regiment was all about''.

He went straight on to doing the Corporal's Cadre which culminated in a two-week camp at a Canadian Army Base in Quebec.

His military career then faded into the background as he went to Queens University to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

Upon completion of that he decided to seek Chartered Accountant qualifications in England.

He did this with Coopers and Lybrand and eventually returned to the Island in 1991 which was when he rejoined the Bermuda Regiment, in the Officer's Cadre.

This resulted in a two week "potential officer's course'' at Sandhurst and numerous overseas tours to Jamaica and North Carolina and just this summer, Capt. White attended the School of Infantry in Warminster.

But his latest endeavour will be "quite different from humping 65 pounds over the hills in Jamaica'', he said.

Capt. White will see the end of Governor Lord Waddington's service in Bermuda and his successor's arrival. This changeover and transition period is one that he said he was especially looking forward to.

He added that he applied for the position because of the experience it would give him and the people he would meet through it -- both in Bermuda and abroad.

But he admitted that after reading his forerunner's hand-over notes that he would not just be riding around in the Daimler and attending "fancy functions''.

Instead he will be responsible for the budgets and accounts of Government House, staff administration, transportation, the maintenance and upkeep of Government House and its grounds and organising the Governor's busy schedule and the security issues around it.

In closing, Capt. White said: "For this job and Government House to work well and display their best sides to the public requires all the staff, particularly the aide-de-camp, to be team players and be efficient ...

Organisation is really the key along with being flexible.'' Capt. William White.