[1] Smeathman was born in Street Aston, near Rugby, Warwickshire.
[2] on 27 May 1865, the eldest son of Revd J L S Hatton, Rector of West Barkwith, Lincolnshire.
He was Director of Evening Classes (1892–1896), later Director of Studies 1896–1908 and Principal, East London College (University of London), now Queen Mary College, 1896-1933.
He also served as a member of the Essex and the West Ham Education Committees during the 1920s.
[1] In 1897 he married Pauline Carlyle, daughter of R J Henderson of Colombo and they had two sons.