Herbert Lewis Curtis was born in London, England in 1894 and studied at the Architectural Association Schools and the "First Atelier of Architecture" in London. By 1920 he had qualified as an architect and that year was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA). In the early 1920s he formed the architectural partnership Curtis & Natusch with the New Zealand-born architect and fellow AA graduate Stanley Natusch. The practice collaborated the architectural firm White & George to design a licensed house for the Worshipful Company of Brewers.
By 1924 Natusch had returned to New Zealand and the partnership had been dissolved. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s Curtis was a partner in the practice of Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendal (1887-1959) in London and in 1939 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA). In 1949 Curtis wrote a book on heating of churches, published by the Incorporated Church Building Society.
His address was given as 2 Anson Road, Tufnell Park, London in 1911 and 1923; 27 Buckingham Gate, Westminster, London in 1926; Carlton House, Stand-on-the-Green, Chiswick, London in 1930; 13 Crawford Street, London in 1936 and 1939; 24 Lingfield Road, London in 1972. He died in London on 18 February 1972