Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Lieutenant

Unit : 8th Bn

Biography :

Son of Joseph and Lucy Haines, of The Morlands, Syston, Leicester. B.A., Mus. Bac. (Cantab.).Frank Percy Haines was born in Leicester during 1888. When he was an infant he lived with his parents at 267, Humberstone Road, Leicester. His father, Joseph Haines, was a schoolmaster, and his mother was called Lucy, neé Horsley. They had been married in Leicester during 1883. Their daughter, Nellie May Haines, had been born in about 1886 and their son, Charles Ernest Haines, was born during 1887. The family were still resident at the same address in 1901. During that year Mrs. Haines was safely delivered of a baby boy, who was named Reginald Joseph Haines. By the time Frank Percy Haines was eight years old he was playing the organ at St. Saviour’s Church, Leicester. Such was his accomplishment that he was awarded the organ scholarship at Clare College, Cambridge, 1907-1910. By 1911 the Frank Percy Haines’ parents had moved to a ten-roomed house called Bayreuth, Morland Avenue, Knighton, Leicester. His father was a schoolmaster at a National School, and his sister, Nellie May, was a teacher. In 1911 Frank wasnot at home, but was boarding at a private school in Ore, Sussex, where he was working as a tutor.

In 1912 Frank Percy Haines was appointed sub-organist at King’s College, Cambridge. Whilst at the college he joined the Officers Training Corps (O.T.C.). On the 26th July 1912 The London Gazette reported - Frank Percy Haines (late Cadet, Cambridge University Contingent, Senior Division, Officers Training Corps) to be Second Lieutenant, for service with Leys School Contingent, Junior Division, Officers Training Corps. Dated 19th June, 1912.

Soon after the declaration of war in 1914 men with previous military service were recalled to the colours. Similarly, those with officer experience were brought back to duty or given commissions. Frank Percy Haines was amongst a number of individuals, both cadets and ex-cadets of the O.T.C. that were made temporary Second Lieutenants on the 23rd September 1914; the notice of which appeared in The
London Gazette six days later. On the 16th November 1914 Frank Percy Haines was made a temporary Lieutenant with the 8th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment; this was announced in the London Gazette on the 15th December 1914. By June 1915 Lieutenant Haines was serving with D’ Company, 8th Battalion, part of the 110th ‘Tigers’ Brigade, at Perham Down Camp, on Salisbury Plain, near Tidworth.

On the 29th July 1915 the 8th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment sailed to France aboard the S.S. Golden Eagle, there to become part of the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.). On the 15th June 1917 Lieutenant Haines was with the 8th Leicesters in the vicinity of Croisilles. On the night of the 15th the battalion was moved to Lincoln Trench, to take part in a renewed assault on the Hindenburg Line. At 2.30 in the morning on the 16th June 1917 Lieutenant Haines was with his men when the battalion went over- the-top for a frontal assault on German positions. The battalion suffered an intense machine gun barrage. Lieutenant Haines was amongst those who were cut down in the attack.

Lieutenant Frank Percy Haines has no known grave. His name appears in bay 5 of the Arras War Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France. In late 1921 Frank Percy Haines’ father and mother, who were then living at The Morlands, Syston, Leicestershire, applied for the medals to which their son was entitled - these were the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal, and the Allied Victory Medal.

Information supplied by Mr Mark Gamble

Date of Birth : 1888

Place of Birth : Leicester

Date of Death : 15.6.1917

Place of Death : & & France

Civil Occupation : Tutor

Period of Service : 1910s

Conflicts : WW1

Places Served : & & France