The only son of Dr. William Packer and musician Edith Mary Rutter, he entered the Royal Naval College, Osborne, as an officer cadet on 15 September 1907.

[1] He left Dartmouth Naval College with the King's dirk and gold medal for outstanding qualities of leadership and joined HMS St. Vincent as a midshipman.

[1] During the First World War Packer stayed on HMAS Australia and his first action was off the Falkland Isles as part of a boarding party that captured the German S.S. Elaenor Woermann from Hamburg.

After the Battle of Jutland in 1916, Packer was mentioned in dispatches for firing 12 rounds (though all fell short of their target) at the line of German High Seas Fleet battleships under local control.

[citation needed] Between 1941 and 1943 Captain Packer was Commanding Officer of HMS Excellent, a shore installation, the Gunnery School on Whale Island, near Portsmouth.

of Rear Admiral Arthur William La Touche Bisset and part of Force H. The 15-inch (381 mm) guns bombarded Catania and supported the Allied landings on Sicily and the Italian mainland.

[1] For planning the amphibious operations in Sicily and landings in Southern France Packer was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in January 1945.

The ashes of Herbert Packer were scattered from the side of the frigate HMSAS Good Hope near Cape Point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet.