He was educated at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Blackburn and, after war service (in the Royal Artillery, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel), at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University.
He was ordained as a deacon on 18 December 1949 and appointed a curate in Chorley (St Laurence) in the Diocese of Blackburn.
He remained in that post for four years, and on 1 January 1955, he was appointed to the position of a vicar at Halliwell (St Paul) in the Diocese of Manchester.
Five years later, on 1 January 1960, he became the curate in charge at Langley St Aidan, again in the Diocese of Manchester, and he remained in this post until 19 October 1964.
His obituary in the Daily Telegraph stated that he suffered a breakdown in his health in 1968, and that was why he moved to the rural parish of Downham, "where he spent the next three years recuperating."
[5] Through Slater and Gordon, one alleged victim stated: I longed for [Whitsey]'s blessing to achieve my wish of a future as a vicar, serving God and the community.