Born on 29 March 1873, second but eldest surviving son of William Hartley, cotton spinner, and Maria Fawsitt his wife, he was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Owens College, which he entered with the Dauntesey medical scholarship in 1893, graduating with honours in medicine and surgery in 1897; he took honours in forensic medicine at the London MB in 1889. He was Bradley scholar in clinical surgery at the Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1897, and served as house surgeon there and at the Manchester Maternity Hospital and Southern Hospital for Women and Children. He settled in practice at Newcastle, Staffordshire, served as house surgeon at the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, and ultimately became consulting surgeon. He was consulting surgeon also to the Burlem and Tunstall Hospital and the Longton Hospital, and consulting gynaecological surgeon to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent. He lived at Hillesden, Lancaster Road, Newcastle. He served as president of the North Staffordshire Medical Society, and as president of the Staffordshire branch and chairman of the North Staffordshire division of the British Medical Association. Hartley married Janet Laird in 1918; they had three sons. He died on 6 December 1952, aged 79, at his son's house, Huggins Cottage, Old Road, Headington, Oxford.