He was born in Croydon in London on 22 June 1912 the son of Walter Whitteridge, and his French wife, Jean Hortense Carouge.
[1] During the Second World War he worked with Ludwig Guttmann caring for spinal injuries at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
His proposers were Ernest Cruickshank, Philip Eggleton, William Ogilvy Kermack, and Sir Edmund Hirst.
He was made an Honorary Member of the Indian National Science Academy as a result, and awarded the Mahalanobis Medal.
His work in neuroscience was continued and expanded by former students and colleagues such as Michael Gaze and Autar Singh Paintal In 1938 he married Dr Gweneth Hutchings (d.1993).