Herbert Bankole-Bright was born in Okrika, in an area the British would the next year designate the Oil Rivers Protectorate, on 23 August 1883, the son of Jacob Galba Bright and his wife Letitia (née Williams),[1] Creole descendants of Sierra Leone Liberated Africans.
In November 1911 he married Addah Maude, daughter of former legislative council member T. Colenso Bishop, and they eventually had four children.
In 1939, following a feud with Isaac Wallace-Johnson, Bright supported government measures to limit the activities of Johnson's Youth Leagues.
After spending the next six years attempting to obstruct all government activities, the National Council lost all its seats at the 1957 election.
Professor Akintola J. G. Wyse wrote a biography of H. C. Bankole-Bright that was dedicated to the author's family and his late sister, Lerina Taylor-Bright.