The son (one of five children) of Henry William Herbert, a chemist, and his wife Harriett Lizzie (née Elmes), of Egham, Surrey,[1] Herbert was educated at Queen's College, Taunton and the Law Society's Law School, from which he received his LL.B.

[2] Herbert served as director of postal and telegraph censorship for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War.

[1] He was created a life peer as Baron Tangley, of Blackheath in the County of Surrey on 22 January 1964.

[citation needed] Herbert introduced Thomas Graham Brown to Frank Smythe in 1927.

[9] Herbert was President of the Alpine Club from 1953 to 1956[10] and he chaired the Everest committee when the world's highest peak was scaled for the first time.