Born in Hereford, the son of Amelia and Alfred Hatton, his interest in art was clear from the early age of two, and at 8 ½ he was awarded a Bronze medal for his exhibit at the Royal Drawing Society (RDS). The relationship between man and horse ran throughout his work. Due to ill-health, he was sent for recuperation to Wales, and began lessons at the Swansea School of Art. He won a Gold Star from the RDS in 1898, and praise and friendship came to the boy painter from G F Watts. He continued entering exhibitions and winning medals, and Watts and his family continued an interest in him and his work, introducing him and giving advice.

In 1903 he spent some weeks in Carbis Bay, with the express purpose of showing his work to the artists of the St Ives and Newlyn colonies; these included Norman GARSTIN, Stanhope FORBES, George Sherwood HUNTER, Russell DOWSON and a Mr GIRDLESTON (probably John Ward GIRLESTON). They praised his horses and his seas, but felt his landscapes needed great improvement, as his colouring was not strong.  Lucy Elizabeth KEMP-WELCH complimented his pen & ink and pencil work.

When Watts died in 1904 he left some ultramarine and rose madder to the youth. At Trinity College, Oxford Hatton studied Mythology, although he continued to study modelling and painting with a branch of the Slade; from this time comes The Turnip Cutters, now held in the British Museum Print Room. Over a number of years he painted and studied in Scotland, London, Holland, Paris (at Julian's) and Egypt, and worked from his home studio in Hereford. His life was lost during WWI in the Egyptian campaign, with most of his regiment.