He received his medical education at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where after qualification he served as clinical assistant in the Ear Nose and Throat department and as house surgeon there and at the Metropolitan Hospital. Hartley settled in general practice in Gravesend, where he was police surgeo

'Sealy' (as he was widely known) was born in Randalstown County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He was the only child of William and Agnes Wood. His mother, a New Zealander, was one of the "First 50" nurses to serve in the First World War. She returned to New Zealand with Sealy when he was two years old a