Alec Haines, 1920–2018
Town Councillor, Mayor, Historian
Alec grew up in a Bristol orphanage. He served in the Royal Tank Regiment during the Second World War and was wounded in Normandy.
Returning to Leominster he dedicated his life to volunteering.
Alec served on the town council for many years and was mayor of the town three times and an honorary alderman. He was also a knowledgeable local historian and author.
Alec’s early life was marred with tragedy. His mother died in childbirth when he was nine, and he was sent to an orphanage in Bristol. He lived with the hope of returning home, but his father’s health was poor, having suffered from mustard gas attacks in the Battle of Ypres during the First World War. Eventually news reached the children that he had died.
Leaving the orphanage Alec moved to London, for a while working there as a trainee manager for Express Dairies before war broke out. He was called up and while in training in Dover he saw the Battle of Britain above him. He eventually landed in Normandy as part of the crew of a ‘Firefly’ Sherman tank, and was wounded in action. Alec was flown back to England where he was treated at the Red Cross camp at Pudleston Court. It was while on leave that he returned to Leominster.
Alec served for many years on the town council (see also Molly Cooke and Pauline Davies). He was mayor three times and was an honorary alderman. He had a deep knowledge of the history of the town and wrote a book ‘Leominster’s 20th Century Characters and its Poacher’, a three-year project involving him in more than 40 interviews with locals. The proceeds of the book were donated to his beloved Priory Church where he served on the Parochial Church Council for 26 years as well as looking after the Priory’s boilers for 18 years. He wound the clock in the tower once a week, and was even prepared to scramble up on to the roof to shovel snow away.
His other volunteering passion for 40 years was working Herefordshire charity Vision Links, and before that Herefordshire County Association of the Blind — of which he remained president up until his death.
He loved reviving old customs such as celebrating ‘Oak Apple Day’ and reviving the old ‘beating the bounds’ custom to mark out parish boundaries.
Alec’s experiences at the Muller’s Homes for Orphans were included in a 30-minute film entitled ‘The Orphan’s Tale’, screened on television in 2007. He also took part in a documentary ‘A Century of Fatherhood’ aired on BBC4 in 2010.
