Wheatley was born on 17 January 1908 in Shettleston, Glasgow, the third and youngest child of Janet (1877–1951), a pupil teacher and daughter of Peter Murphy, a labourer from Belfast, and Patrick Wheatley (1875–1937), sometime miner and later publisher, who was born in County Waterford.
[1] He served in the Royal Artillery and the Judge Advocate Generals' Branch during World War II.
[7] The resulting "Wheatley Report", published in 1969, led to the eventual introduction a new system of Scottish local authorities.
[8] On 28 July 1970 he was created a life peer, as Baron Wheatley, of Shettleston in the County of the City of Glasgow.
Following the Ibrox disaster in 1971, Wheatley was appointed by the government to conduct an inquiry into safety at sports grounds.
[1] His uncle was the Shettleston MP John Wheatley, minister of housing in the 1924 Labour government.