Herbert Evans Ayris was born in Camberwell, Surrey [now London], England on 11 May 1876. By 1881 he had moved to Cambridge. He was articled to Collings Beatson Young (1857-1922) in London from 1891 to 1895. He then worked as an assistant to Edwin Otto Sachs (1870-1919) in 1895-96; to John Alfred Gotch (1852-1941) from 1896 to 1898; to Michael Harding in Salisbury, Wiltshire from 1898 to 1901; and to George Dale Oliver (1851-1928) and Edward John Dodgshun (1854-1927) in Carlisle from 1901.
Ayris took over Dale's practice in Carlisle when the latter retired. He was appointed Architect to the Joint Mental Hospital Committee of Cumberland and Westmorland, and Surveyor to the Governors, Carlisle Grammar School. He was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (LRIBA) in 1911. He was also a member of the Northamptonshire Association of Architects, Cumberland Branch, and it Hon. Secretary in the 1920s and 1930s.
His address was given as 68 Lowther Street, Carlisle in 1911 and 1935; 56 Etterby Street, Stanwix, Carlisle in 1911 and 1914; and The Cottage in the Wood, Wigton Road, near Carlisle, Cumbria in 1930 and 1948. He died in Carlisle on 1 September 1948
Cardewlees Wood Estate, residences, 1920, etc.; Dalston Victory Hall, 1922; Westminster Bank, Carlisle, 1923; Central Hall and Institute, 1922-23 (with A. Brocklehurst of Manchester); further houses on Cardewlees Wood Estate, and at Heads Nook, Carlisle
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 175, 1948, p. 309