Education
Born in Salisbury, he was educated at Taunton School, "the particular hellish life which is the English public school" as he described lieutenant
Born in Salisbury, he was educated at Taunton School, "the particular hellish life which is the English public school" as he described lieutenant
Trained at RADA, he then worked as an actor in repertory, and while in the company at Bideford in Devon, met the actress Asthore Lloyd Mawson (Jackie). At the start of the Second World War, as a lifelong pacifist, he registered as a conscientious objector, but soon after changed his mind and joined the anti-aircraft section of the Royal Artillery: his wartime experiences as a soldier, which are vividly described in dark detail in diaries written at the time ( now held in the V&A theatre museum collection) were to mark a profound change in his life and work. In Duddleswell he worked on many plays, film scripts and reviews on a wide mahogany table that had belonged to a hero of his, Lord Byron, writing by hand in a tiny black script adopted from the handwriting of Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo), or typing out the pages on a stately German typewriter, often to the accompaniment of a Beethoven piece on a rather modern stereo system.
John Whiting died from testicular cancer on 16 June 1963 in London at the age of 45.
His obituary notice in "The Times" noted that
He was an incisive critic ( for some time he wrote as drama critic of The London Magazine and his fine critical intelligence prevented him from ever, after Saint"s Day, going too far, but in artistic creations those who never go too far perhaps never go quite far enough. Nevertheless in Marching Song in particular he wrote a play which seems likely to last, and at the time of his death he appeared to be at the beginning of a fruitful new phase in his career.
In 1965, the John Whiting Award was established to commemorate the writer"s contribution to post-war British theatre. In 2015, the wartime diaries, as well as personal letters, handwritten notes, manuscripts etc were donated by the family to the V&A.
From 1946 till 1952, while writing, he again worked as an actor, as a member of John Gielgud"s company, and also, in 1951, winning first prize in the Festival of Britain play competition for Saint"s Day.