The son of a farmer, he was born in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire in South East England, but the family moved to Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, Yorkshire in 1870 when his father was appointed farm bailiff.

[1] In 1884, he emigrated to Australia, travelling with a maternal uncle, who lived in Melbourne but had recently returned to England on a family visit.

[1] Later he worked for the Langlands Foundry Company Limited in Yarra Bank, Melbourne, which made locomotive boilers, wheels and gold mining equipment.

[1] During this time, he submitted a design for a swing bridge over the Yarra River at Spencer Street, Melbourne, for a competition organised by the Government of Victoria, but did not win.

[1] In December 1887, Austin took up his new appointment as manager of an engineering workshop owned by Richard Pickup Park, who was developing a new sheep-shearing machine for Frederick York Wolseley.

Frederick Wolseley and Herbert Austin left John Howard in charge of the Australian operation and returned to England in November 1893.

[3] Looking for other products to even out the workload, Herbert Austin became interested in motor cars and built two different types of three-wheelers in his own time.

[3] Austin raised capital of £37,000 (£4,369,468.69 adjusted for inflation in 2018) and embarked on a search for a factory that could accommodate his idea for a new car manufacturer.

The company turned its resources to the war effort in 1914 and, in 1917, Austin was knighted for his services and also received the Belgium Order of the Crown of Leopold II, for the employment of 3,000 Belgian refugees at Longbridge.

Austin was placed in charge of implementing the scheme on the producers' side, who were mainly motor vehicle manufacturers; while technical liaison with the aircraft industry was placed with Charles Bruce-Gardner.

From 1918 to 1924, Austin served as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham King's Norton but never made a speech in the House of Commons.