He was educated in Paris and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics (Junior Optime BA 1889, MA 1893).
He worked very closely with his friend Udny Yule, who had developed some of the basic theory and was interested in the same kind of applications.
Yule recalled how Hooker "joined with me in the early days of our acquaintance to form a very select Statistical Dining Club of two members, which met fairly regularly after meetings of the Society."
Indeed, Yule commented, "The importance and value of Hooker’s scientific work ... was never, in my opinion, appreciated at its proper worth by the Ministry at the time when he was still in its service."
For information about the Hooker family see As a baby RHH was quite poorly and his father and Darwin exchanged anxious letters over his health