Whiting was married with three sons and the second-youngest, William, later followed in his footsteps to play as a goalkeeper for Tunbridge Wells Rangers. In December 1914, four months after the outbreak of the First World War, Whiting enlisted in the Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. After arriving in France in November 1915, Whiting became infected with scabies at the front and was sent to a hospital in Brighton for treatment. As a result of the discovery of his wife's pregnancy and the death of his brother on the Somme in August 1916, Whiting went AWOL. He was caught in October 1916 and court-martialled in France in February 1917. A shortage of men meant that his sentence of 9 months' hard labour lasted just one week before he rejoined the Football Battalion. He was killed in action whilst assaulting a fortified German position at Oppy Wood during the Battle of Arras on 28 April 1917 and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.