Ray White was born in Shoreham, West Sussex, England in 1952. He graduated in electrical and electronic engineering at Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1973, having gained experience at Radon Industrial Electronics, Worthing, Sussex (small-scale production of domestic audio equipment), the Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment (MoD), Cosham, Hants (a wide range of activities, including fitting a prototype electronics card into a buoy from a rubber boat floating off the Isle of Mull) and George Kingsbury Ltd., Gosport, Hants (drawing office, oily machines and logic).

He joined the British Broadcasting Corporation as a maintenance engineer in 1973. Six years later, he became Senior Engineer at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where he planned the installation and maintenance of six electronic music studios, all eventually equipped with Apple Macintosh computers. He left the BBC in 1993 and now enjoys an independent lifestyle. In 2006 he edited CAMRA's CalderCask Real Ale Guide and was involved in Cock & Bull Stories, a stage presentation of real-life stories about men and masculinity.