James Percival Whitham appears in the 1941 Jurors List as Acting Branch Manager of Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada. He married Beatrice Lenora Brouwer and they later had a baby boy, Jonathan G. Whitham (1941-1944) born on 30 November 1941 at Matilda Hospital.
During the Battle of Hong Kong, Whitham was a member of the HKVDC and had been transferred to the Middlesex Company on 17 December 1941 as a lieutenant. He was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941.
Whitham's wife and infant son were interned at Stanley Camp and later released in June 1942 and repatriated to the United States.
In September 1942, Whitham was one of the 1,816 men on board the Lisbon Maru. The vessel was enroute to Japan when it was torpedoed on 1 October. James Percival Whitham is believed to have drowned on 2 October 1942.
Source
1. The Old Shirburnian Society: https://oldshirburnian.org.uk/james-percival-whitham-1907-1942/
2. Battle Data Search: https://digital.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/1941hkbattle/en/data.php?show=item&id=FW00083
3. Commonwealth War Graves Commission: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2129857/james-percival-whitham/