Herbert Menzies Marshall was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England on 1 August 1841. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge from where he graduated in 1864. He then went to Paris where he trained as an architect in the atelier of Charles Auguste Questel (1807-1888). Following his return to England in 1867 he entered the Royal Academy Schools in London. In 1868 he was awarded the Travelling Studentship for Architecture and consequently visited Italy on a sketching tour.
Marshall was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1868 although he appears to have designed little if any architectural work and resigned from the RIBA in 1871. He subsequently pursued a career as painter and illustrator. He continued to live in London where he produced a series of topographical watercolours for exhibition and publication. He illustrated several books, including for The Scenery of London by G. E. Mitton (1905), Wanderer in Holland by E. V. Lucas ((1905), and, with his daughter, Hester, Cathedral Cities of France (1907).
He exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society, Fine Art Society, Abbey Gallery, Royal Academy, New Gallery, New English Art Club, Leicester Galleries and Dudley Gallery in London; the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; and Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society (ARWS) in 1879 and a full member (RWS) in 1883. He served as Vice-President of the RWS from 1898 to 1900. He was also elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1881, an Associate of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1901, In 1884 he was a founding member of the Art Workers Guild. In 1904, he was appointed Professor of Landscape Painting at Queen's College, London
Marshall died at his home in London on 2 March 1913.