John Whiting was educated at St Peter's College and Adelaide University where he was studying Law when World War II broke out. He joined the RAAF and captained Lancaster Bombers over Germany and Italy, earning the DFC in 1943. After discharge from the RAAF he travelled widely in Europe and the Middle East, taking on a variety of jobs, including garage attendant, salesman, roughneck and derrickman in the desert oilfields of Kuwait, and publicity man in the British film industry. Whiting returned to Australia in 1950 and completed a medical degree, subsequently training in and then working for three years as a medical officer in Repatriation Hospitals. He stood unsuccessfully for a seat in the Australian Senate and was a founding member of the GP Society, later Private Doctors of Australia. He retired from general practice in 1982. In addition to Be In It, Mate!, he also wrote Wake up, Mate! (1973) a personal work on the role of doctors in society and published 'Are They Crooks or Fools?' on the internet shortly before his death in 2007.
