 He was educated at Wycliffe College (Gloucestershire), University College (receiving the gold and silver medals for botany) and the Middlesex Hospital, London.He qualified as MRCS LRCP in 1902, FRCS in 1904 and MB (London) in 1908.On 19 October 1911 Hastings married Bessie Tuke (1882–1958), daughter of the architect William Tuke, they had two children.