His parents were Joseph Whittome, a warehouseman and a Baptist minister, and Eunice Smith.

[1] He subsequently operated from his shops at 24 Station Road, Epsom and in Sutton.

[1] He married Sarah Elizabeth "Bessie" Draper in Hertford on 4 June 1907.

[1] He was pre-deceased by Ronald, who had died in 1941 while serving as a wing commander with the Royal Air Force during World War II.

[1] His collection of glass plate negatives and his papers are held by the Sutton Local Studies & Archives Centre, where the negatives have been digitised by a project branded "Past on Glass", funded with a £95,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.