Sir Percival Hartley was born December 2, 1867. He was educated at Marlborough College and St. John's College in Cambridge, England. Hartley later studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, as well as other hospitals in Paris and Vienna. He was a physician at the London General Hospital and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Hartley also worked at the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest in Brompton, London, and Daneswood Sanatorium in Bedfordshire, England. He wrote a number of medical books and articles for journals. In 1900, he was given the honour of Goulsonian Lecturer at the Royal College of Physician. Throughout his career as a physician, Hartley specialized in diseases of the chest, particularly tuberculosis. He died on June 30, 1952.