Harold Hartley

Early life He was the only child of the collector and bibliophile Harold T. Hartley (1851–1943). His mother died in 1884 when he was a young child and his father later remarried. The future academic was educated at Dulwich College, and Balliol College, Oxford, graduating from the latter in 1900 with a first in natural science. As a tutor at Balliol, he supervised the research of Edmund Bowen

First World War Hartley served in the First World War and was awarded the Military Cross.

Honours He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1918 Birthday Honours. He was Bedford Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, at Balliol College, University of Oxford. He was knighted in 1928, made KCVO in 1944, GCVO in 1957 and Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1967.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1926.

He gave the address "Man's Use of Energy" as president of the British Association for 1949–1950. He received the Hoover Medal in 1968.

Family Hartley was married in 1906 to Gertrude, eldest daughter of Arthur Lionel Smith, who was later Master of Balliol College. They had one son and one daughter.