He was born in London on 18 July 1926 the son of the physicians Ethel Murgatroyd and Lionel Whitby.
He was educated at Eton College then studied science at the University of Cambridge specialising in biochemistry under Dr Malcolm Dixon.
[2] In 1960 he became biochemist to Addenbrooke's Hospital linked to the University of Cambridge, where his father was by then recently retired as Professor of Medicine.
His proposers were Neil Campbell, Sir Edmund Hirst, David Manners, and Mowbray Ritchie.
[4] He retired in 1991 and died in Edinburgh on 12 March 2000 of a myocardial infarction following an operation on a stomach obstruction.