Herbert Yelland was born in Point Macleay, Wellington, South Australia on 27 February 1878. The son of a farmer, he was educated at Roseworthy Agricultural College, and in 1899 started working for the South Australian education department.
By 1901 he had emigrated to Western Australia and was working as a schoolmaster at Midland. In 1904 he took up a position of Clerk in the Lands Department, remaining there until 1911. Yelland resigned his job in 1911 and took up land in the Bruce Rock district, becoming one of the district"s pioneer farmers.
Yelland joined the Nationalist Party in 1923, and that August unsuccessfully contested the Legislative Council seat of East Province in a by-election.
He would hold the seat until the election of May 1936. In 1928 he completed a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Western Australia.
Yelland contested the seat of Swan in the by-election of April 1944, but was unsuccessful. He died on 22 May 1962 and was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery.
