Herbert Hamilton Harty was born in 1874 in Hillsborough. He was a church organist, composer, conductor, and piano accompanist. His musical training began with his father, an organist. Bertie learned viola, piano, and counterpoint from him. Still a teenager, Harty was engaged as organist in Bray, near Dublin. While there, he first met the Italian composer Michele Esposito, professor of piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, after listening to Harty play, Esposito became a mentor to him.

From 1932 to 1935, he was conductor-in-chief of the London Symphony Orchestra, but it was felt that his box-office appeal wasn't enough to keep him on, despite his efforts to raise the performance standards of the orchestra.

He was well-enough thought of as a musician that he was knighted in 1925 and awarded the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society of London in 1934.