[1][2][3] He was born in Hatcham, Surrey, the son of the barrister and newspaper proprietor Alexander Haldane (son of Scottish cleric James Haldane) and Emma Hardcastle.

[1] His early education was at Bury St Edmunds Grammar School, Suffolk.

[4] He was made deacon in 1866 and began his Anglican ministry as a curate at Calne, Wiltshire (1866–1869),[1] during which time he was ordained priest on Trinity Sunday 1867 (16 June) by Walter Kerr Hamilton, Bishop of Salisbury, at Salisbury Cathedral — on that occasion his name was gazetted James Robert Alexander Hardcastle Haldane-Chinnery (i.e. with his mother's maiden name as an extra middle-name).

[1] His next pastoral appointment was a curate at Ballachulish, with charge of Nether Lochaber (1876–1879).

[1] Chinnery-Haldane died in office at Alltshellach House Nether Lochaber on 16 February 1906, aged 63.