Career
He was born in Limerick in Ireland and educated at the Catholic University School and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He went to Hong Kong where he was a physician to the Alice Memorial Hospital. Doctor Hartigan with Doctor Patrick Manson and Doctor Gregory Paul Jordan formed the Hong Kong Medical Society in September 1886.
The Society established the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese in 1887 which later transformed into the University of Hong Kong.
Hartigan was also a professor at the school. Doctor Sun Yat-sen, graduate of the school, mentioned him as one of his significant teachers.
Doctor Hartigan married Florence Gertrude Dare, whose older sister had married Thomas Jackson, the chief manager of the Household Bank.
