Hermann Anderson Haines was born in Bombay in December 1857 and was sent back to England to Wellington in 1870. He was in the Hopetoun, made Head of College in 1878, captained the XI and in the Rackets Pair.
He came fifth in the notoriously difficult Imperial Engineering College (Cooper’s Hill) exam, but instead took a a Scholarship to Keble, where he captained the College XI and only narrowly missed out on a Blue.
In 1881 he passed first into the Home Civil Service and went to the India Office. He served in the Financial and Political Departments before going in 1903 as assistant-secretary to the Public Works Department, of which he became head eight years later.
One of the surviving pieces of his work from the India office is the border that was drawn between Persia and Baluchistan, now Iran and Pakistan, which centred on the town of Mekran. A copy can be viewed on the Qatar National Library website.
He was initiated into St. George’s Lodge No 370 in Chertsey in 1901, and joined that lodge’s chapter soon thereafter. He was made both Provincial Junior Grand Deacon and Provincial Grand Sword Bearer in Surrey in 1911.
He was a Founder of the OW Lodge and became our sixth Worshipful Deputy Master in 1914.
He was also for many years a member of Wellington’s Walworth Mission Council. His chief recreation was fishing, usually in Scotland or Ireland, being a man who lived a somewhat secluded life. His practical benevolence, which showed itself in the interest which he took in the numerous boys whom he helped to start in life, was known only to his most intimate friends.