| Activity | Whistler was born in Mablethorpe to Major Fuller Whistler and educated at Aldenham School. He served with the Indian police in the Punjab province from 1909 to 1926. On 2 October 1925 he married Margaret Joan Ashton daughter of Thomas Gair Ashton, 1st Baron Ashton of Hyde and Eva Margaret James, on 2 October 1925. He died on 7 July 1943 leaving behind a daughter Benedicta and son Ralfe.
Whistler studied and collected birds and on retiring to England he continued his researches into Indian ornithology. He published extensively in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, making notes on the occurrence and on the distributions of various geographic plumage variations. He also published a ten part introduction to the study of birds in India. He also make collecting trips to Spain and Albania, often in the company of Claud Buchanan Ticehurst. Whistler's publications include the Popular Handbook of Indian Birds (1928).
Whistler lived at Battle, East Sussex during his retirement, where he was a Justice of the Peace. He joined the British Ornithologists' Union in 1913 and in 1940 served as its as Vice-President. He visited Kashmir with Admiral Lynes and wanted to produce an account of the birds of Punjab and Kashmir, however this was not completed. The Whistler Prize of Sussex University, awarded to the best essay on natural history or archaeology, is named after him. His collection of 17,000 bird skins is now at the Natural History Museum
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