Heber was born at Malpas in Cheshire. His father, who belonged to an old Yorkshire family, held half the living of Malpas.

Reginald Heber showed remarkable promise, and in November 1800 entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where he proved a distinguished student, carrying off prizes for a Latin poem entitled Carmen seculare, an English poem on Palestine, and a prose essay on The Sense of Honour.

In November 1804, he was elected a fellow of All Souls'. After completing his university career, he went on a long tour of Europe.

Having taken holy orders in 1807, he took up the family living of Hodnet in Shropshire. In 1809 he married Amelia Shipley, daughter of the Dean of St Asaph. He was made prebendary of St Asaph in 1812, appointed Bampton lecturer for 1815, preacher at Lincoln's Inn in 1822, and Bishop of Calcutta in January 1823. Before sailing for India he received the degree of D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) from the University of Oxford.

In India, Bishop Heber laboured indefatigably - not only for the good of his own diocese, but for the spread of Christianity throughout the East. He toured the country, consecrating churches, founding schools and discharging other Christian duties.

His devotion to his work in a trying climate told severely on his health. At Trichinopoly (or Trichy in Tamil) he was seized with an apoplectic fit when in his bath, and died. The Bishop Heber College at Trichy is named after him - and is famous for education and sports. A statue of him, by Chantrey, was erected at Calcutta. Another monument to Heber, also by Chantrey, can be seen along the south wall of the Ambulatory of Saint Paul's Cathedral, London. Heber is depicted as a kneeling figure in episcopal robes. The relief on the pedestal represents the prelate confirming converted Indians.

Heber was a pious man of profound learning, literary taste and great practical energy. His fame rests mainly on his hymns. These include:

• "Bread of the World"
• "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning"
• "By cool Siloam's shady rill"
• "God, that madest earth and heaven"
• "From Greenland's icy mountains", which was the missionary hymn most frequently printed in 19th century American hymnals
• "Holy, holy, holy"
• "Lord of mercy and of might"
• "The Lord of might from Sinai's brow"
• "The Lord will come, the earth shall quake"
• "The Son of God goes forth to war".

Heber's hymns and other poems have style, pathos and soaring aspiration.

Heber's other works include:

• Palestine: a Poem, to which is added the Passage of the Red Sea (1809)
• Europe: Lines on the Present War (1809)
• a volume of poems in 1812
• The Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter asserted and explained (being the Bampton Lectures for 1815)
• The Whole Works of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, with a Life of the Author, and a Critical Examination of his Writings (1822)
• Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year, principally by Bishop Heber (1827)
• A Journey through India (1828)
• Sermons preached in England, and Sermons preached in India (1829)
• Sermons on the Lessons, the Gospel, or the Epistle for every Sunday in the Year (1837).

The Poetical Works of Reginald Heber were collected in 1841.

See the Life of Reginald Heber, D.D., The Lord Bishop of Calcutta by his Widow with Selections, Correspondence, Unpublished Poems, and Private Papers; ..., by Amelia (Shipley) Heber (1830); The Last Days of Bishop Heber, by Thomas Robinson, archdeacon of Madras (1830); TS Smyth, The Character and Religious Doctrine of Bishop Heber (1831), The Poetical Works of Crabbe, Heber, and Pollock, Complete in One Volume (1847); and Memorials of a Quiet Life, by Augustus JC Hare (1874).

Reginald Heber, the then Lord Bishop of Calcutta, leader of Christians in India, met Swaminarayan, who is considered an avatara of Narayana in the Swaminarayan faith in 1826. Bishop Heber mentiones in his account of the meeting that about two hundred disciples of Swaminarayan accompanied him as his bodyguards mounted on horses, carrying matchlocks and swords. Bishop Heber himself had about 100 horse guards accompanying him and mentioned in his account that this was embarrassing for him. As a result of the meeting, both leaders gained mutual respect for each other.

Mahatma Gandhi states that Heber's hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" appalled him with the lines apparently referring to Hindu (pagan) India (Ceylon was then part of British India): "Where every prospect pleases, and man alone is vile." This statement has become part of the core narrative of Hindu, and even Buddhist and others, objecting to Christian "aggression" against their religions.

Heber's hymn runs:

"From Greenland’s icy mountains, from India’s coral strand;

Where Afric’s sunny fountains roll down their golden sand:

From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain,

They call us to deliver their land from error’s chain.

"What though the spicy breezes blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle;

Though every prospect pleases, and only man is vile?

In vain with lavish kindness the gifts of God are strown;

The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone.

"Shall we, whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high,

Shall we to those benighted the lamp of life deny?

Salvation! O salvation! The joyful sound proclaim,

Till earth’s remotest nation has learned Messiah’s Name.

"Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, and you, ye waters, roll

Till, like a sea of glory, it spreads from pole to pole:

Till o’er our ransomed nature the Lamb for sinners slain,

Redeemer, King, Creator, in bliss returns to reign.

Gandhi said:

"You, the missionaries come to India thinking that you come to a land of heathens, of idolators, of men who do not know God. One of the greatest of Christian divines, Bishop Heber, wrote the two lines which have always left a sting with me: 'Where every prospect pleases, and man alone is vile.' I wish he had not written them. My own experience in my travels throughout India has been to the contrary. I have gone from one end of the country to the other, without any prejudice, in a relentless search after truth, and I am not able to say that here in this fair land, watered by the great Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Jumna, man is vile. He is not vile. He is as much a seeker after truth as you and I are, possibly more so" - Mahatma Gandhi, Speech at a Meeting of Missionaries at the Y.M C.A. Calcutta, Vol. 27 p. 434-39, Young India, 6-8-1925, October 8, 1925 (Source: http://india.indymedia.org/en/2003/02/3105.shtml)

"(Gandhi) regretted what Bishop Heber had said about these poor people - 'Where every prospect pleases, and man alone is vile.' He was wrong. Let God forgive him" - Sita Ram Goel, History of Hindu-Christian Encounters, A.D. 304 to 1996, Voice of India, New Delhi(http://www.bharatvani.org/books//hhce/Ch14.htm#37a)

"I have read several missionary publications and they are able to see only the dark side and paint it darker still. The famous hymn of Bishop Heber's 'Greenland's icy mountains,' is a clear libel on Indian humanity. I was favored with some literature even in the Yervada Prison by well-meaning missionaries, which seemed to be written as if merely to belittle Hinduism" - Mahatma Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 27, New Delhi, 1968, p. 436.