He was educated at King's College, London and spent a year at the locomotive works of George Stephenson, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
He enjoyed engineering shop work and kept a very complete workshop at home.
He played a full part in the direction of their many contracts and business interests.
However whereas his elder brother Alexander Brogden seems to have been a very outgoing man, was elected as an MP and led the firm into many ventures, lawsuits and eventually into bankruptcy, Henry comes across as quieter, more studious and perhaps more careful.
[1] Brogden was a Fellow of the Geological Society and a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.