Reginald Hugh Hickling was born on 2 August 1920, the elder son of Frederick and Elsie Hickling of Malvern, Worcestershire. He was educated at Buxton College then at Nottingham University. In 1945, Hickling married Beryl Dennett with whom he had two sons and one daughter.

From 1941-46, Hickling served with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, then was appointed Deputy Solicitor for the London Evening Standard (1946-1950). He subsequently held a number of legal positions overseas including: Assistant Attorney-General, Sarawak [later part of Malaysia] (1950-5); several positions in Malaya [later part of Malaysia] including Legal Draftsman (1957), Parliamentary Draftsman (1959), and Commissioner of Law Revision (1961); Commonwealth Office (1964); Legal Adviser to the High Commissioner in Aden and South Arabia [later Yemen] (1964-7); Maritime Law Adviser in Thailand (1968-9), Malaysia (1969), Sri Lanka (1970) and the Yemen Arab Republic [later part of Yemen] (1984 and 1986); then Attorney-General, Gibraltar (1970-72).

Hickling also held academic positions including Lecturer in South East Asian Law at SOAS (1976-8, 1981-2) and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Singapore (1974-6 and 1978-80). He died in February 2007.