His earlier work included Royal Navy bases in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Malta and Singapore during the First World War and Interwar period.

Whitaker held that position for 14 years, which included most of the Second World War, and during that time was ultimately responsible for all of the Admiralty's civil engineering projects.

Whitaker sat on various committees of organisations related to his area of expertise, including the Dover Harbour Board and Suez Canal Company.

Whitaker was born on 17 July 1893 in Ladysmith, Natal Colony in modern-day South Africa but received his education mainly in Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

[1] At the Admiralty Whitaker focussed on the construction and maintenance of harbours, docks, air defence installations and fuel oil facilities.

[2] In 1926 he was posted to the Royal Navy dockyard in Malta where he was involved in the construction of a wave trap in the harbour and underground ammunition dumps as well as the maintenance of various breakwaters.

[1] Whitaker was promoted to Superintending Civil Engineer of the naval base at Singapore in 1933, whilst there he constructed a 1,000 feet (300 m) long dry dock and undertook reclamation works on swampy land.

[1] Whitaker left the Admiralty in 1954 and joined the Livesey & Henderson engineering consultancy as a partner – his curriculum vitae for this job is now held in the National Archives.