Born on 1 July 1849, he was the eldest son of Thomas Pemberton, the head of an old-established firm of brass founders in Livery Street, Birmingham.
[1][2] Pemberton married on 11 March 1873, in the Old Meeting House, Birmingham, Mary Elizabeth, second daughter of Edward Richard Patie Townley of Edgbaston.
[1] At his father's house he met in youth Edward Askew Sothern, Madge Kendal and other players on visits to Birmingham, and he soon tried his hand at drama.
His comedietta Weeds, the first of a long list of ephemeral pieces, mainly farcical, was written for the Kendals, and produced at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Birmingham, opening on 16 November 1874.
He made his widest reputation as a theatrical biographer, writing memoirs of Edward Askew Sothern (1889), the Kendals (1891), T. W. Robertson (1892), John Hare (1895), Ellen Terry and her sisters (1902), and Sir Charles Wyndham (1905).