Educated at Liverpool College.,[2] at age 17, Ivatt was apprenticed to John Ramsbottom at the Crewe Works of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR).

In 1882, he was appointed to the post of locomotive engineer there, where he patented a design for a sprung flap for vertically-opening carriage windows that became ubiquitous.

[1] In 1895, Ivatt returned to England and was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway (GNR), succeeding Patrick Stirling, with references from Samuel Waite Johnson, John Aspinall, Francis William Webb and William Dean.

[1] His son George Ivatt was also a locomotive engineer and post-war CME of the London Midland and Scottish Railway.

His daughter Marjorie married Oliver Bulleid, CME of the Southern Railway (Great Britain).