Pearson was born in the village of Wookey, Somerset to Arthur Cyril and Phillippa Massingberd Maxwell (née Lyte) Pearson (the granddaughter of the hymn-writer and poet Henry Francis Lyte) and educated at Winchester College in Hampshire.
In December 1887, Pearson married Isobel Sarah Bennett, the daughter of Canon Frederick Bennett, of Maddington, Wiltshire, with whom he had three daughters [REF].