He was educated at Leeds Grammar School, and on 22 October 1874 matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford with a scholarship.
As an undergraduate, he took a first class in classical moderations in 1875 and in literæ humaniores in 1878; he won the two Gaisford prizes for Greek verse (1876) and Greek prose (1877), the Craven Scholarship (1879), and the Stanhope Essay Prize on the topic Political Theories of Dante (1878).
He made speeches at the Oxford Union on the Liberal side, and he rowed in the Corpus Christi eight.
He laid more stress than most Oxford tutors of his time on verbal accuracy and the need for close textual study.
[1] Haigh died at his residence in the Parks at Oxford on 20 December 1905, and was buried in Holywell churchyard.