William Henry Himbury was born in Sherborne, Dorset, in March 1871. Having been privately educated, he worked as a superintendent in the cable and telegrams service in colonial West Africa in the 1890s. He joined the British Cotton Growing Association (BCGA) in 1904 as an expert on West Africa, and subsequently went on to become chairman and managing director. He travelled extensively, visiting major cotton-growing countries including India, Uganda, the Sudan and Egypt. In 1918 he was also appointed to the Empire Cotton Growing Committee, a governmental agency established to promote cotton growing in the Empire. He was involved in the establishment of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA) in St Augustine, Trinidad, in 1921, and regularly gave evidence to committees on colonial matters. He was knighted in the 1926 Birthday Honours. He married firstly Laura Anne Eversden (d. 1929) and they had three sons and one daughter, and secondly Elizabeth Crapper. He died in Southport in November 1955 aged 84.