 He returned to active service for the first year of the Second World War.Higgins became a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery as a second lieutenant on 15 June 1895, and promoted to lieutenant on 15 June 1898.He served in the Second Boer War in South Africa, where he took part in the operations in Natal in 1899, including actions at Rietfontein and Lombard's Kop.