[1] He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford and briefly served with the Royal Horse Guards from 1958 to 1960 before, in 1969, inheriting his father's titles and estate centred on Wilton House in Wiltshire.
Herbert began to take an interest in the film business in the 1960s and worked on the set of The Heroes of Telemark (1965).
[2] After making documentaries about musicians, the first feature film he directed was Malachi's Cove (1974),[2] also known as The Seaweed Children, starring Donald Pleasence and Arthur English, but he is best remembered for his second film, Emily (1976), a picture set in the 1920s starring Koo Stark.
[2] In their book Great Houses of England & Wales (1994), Hugh Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes commented that "The present Lord Pembroke is (as Henry Herbert) a film and television director, best known for the Civil War drama series By the Sword Divided and for Emily.
In 1988 Pembroke married Miranda Juliet (born 1962), daughter of Lt John Somerville Kendall Oram, of Whitwick Manor, Ledbury, Herefordshire, and his first wife, Juliet Hermione, daughter of John Roland Abbey, of Redlynch House, Salisbury, the former High Sheriff of Sussex.