He entered the Bengal Army in 1824.[3] He was secretary to Sir Charles Metcalfe, administrator in British India, and accompanied him when Metcalfe was posted to Jamaica and then Canada.[4] He was the eighth Governor of Mauritius. from 8 January 1851 to 20 September 1857.[5]
In 1835 Higginson married Louisa Shakespear, the eldest daughter of Henry Davenport Shakespear, in Calcutta.[7][4] Secondly, he married Olivia Nichola Dobbs at Leamington Spa, on 11 November 1854.[8][9] A daughter of his second marriage, Sydney Harriet Maude Higginson, married Sir John Charles Kennedy, 3rd Baronet, in 1879.[10]