We report on BVI CCD photometry of a field centered in the region of the Galactic star cluster Whiting 1 down to V = 23.0 .
This cluster has never been studied insofar , and we provide for the first time estimates of its fundamental parameters , namely , radial extent , age , distance and reddening .
Whiting 1 turns out to be a compact star cluster with a diameter of about 1 ^ { \prime } .
We find that the cluster is about 5 Gyr old and has a probable metal abundance around [ Fe/H ] = -1.20 .
Its position at b = -60 ^ { o } .64 and at a heliocentric distance of about 45 kpc makes the cluster a rather strange object , surely not a disk old open cluster , but perhaps the youngest halo Globular Cluster insofar known .