Henry Marten was born in Kensington, London in 1872. Marten entered Eton College, and from there matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford in 1891.
In 1895, he graduated with a first class degree in modern history, and accepted an offer from Edmond Warre to return to Eton to teach history.
He was a founder member of the Historical Association in 1906. In 1912, he published The Groundwork of British History with his co-author, George Townsend Warner, a master at Harrow and an outstanding Fives player, which became \"one of the most used school textbooks of the first half of the twentieth century\".
Marten was appointed Vice-Provost at Eton in 1929, and Provost in 1945 and in 1938, Marten began instructing Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) in constitutional history. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1945 New Year Honours and received the accolade from King George VI on 4 March 1945, on the steps of Eton College Chapel in the original Eton Fives court.
He chaired the original committee of the Old Etonian Fives club and was joint Patron - with Lord Kinnaird - of the Eton Fives Association from 1934-38, having served as Treasurer from 1924-33.