Henry Marriott Paget was born in Clerkenwell, Middlesex [now London], England on 31 December 1857 and studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1874. Like his two younger brothers, Sidney Edward Paget (1860-1908) and Walter Stanley Paget (1883-1935), he subsequently worked as a painter and illustrator.

He illustrated several books and was a contributor to The Illustrated London News, The Graphic; The Quiver; The Windsor Magazine; The Sphere, and other magazines. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1879 to 1894. He also showed his work at the Royal Society of British Artists, Fine Art Society, Grosvenor Gallery and Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London; the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; and at Manchester City Art Gallery.

He was elected a member of Art Workers Guild in 1886 and the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in London in 1889.

Paget travelled extensively and lived for a period in the Ottoman Empire [now Turkey]. He was commissioned by The Sphere to cover the Balkan War in 1912-13. He died in Hampstead, London, on 27 March 1936.