His father was a tea merchant in London and was the Master of the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1850.
Wathen was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School before going up to Wadham College, Oxford in 1859.
[2][3][4] Wathen played club cricket for Surrey sides in 1861 whist at university, and played his first first-class cricket match for the Gentlemen of the South against the Gentlemen of the North at Trent Bridge in the same year, scoring 42 runs on his debut.
[2] After 1871 Wathen moved from Beckenham to run a school on Chesham Place in Brighton.
Despite being a teacher, he was a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers and was given the Freedom of the City of London, both through his family connections.