He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, in Paris, and in Vienna.
He was co-author with the Sir Richard Douglas Powell of the fifth and sixth editions of the textbook Diseases of the Lungs and Pleurae (1911 and 1921).
[1] Hartley was elected a Member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1893 and a Fellow in 1899.
[4][1] In 1895, he married Josephine, the only daughter and heiress of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Hartley, whose name he assumed in 1904.
[1] They had a son, Percival Hubert, and a daughter, Audrey Gwendolen.