Reginald Hine

Reginald Leslie Hine (25 September 1883 – 14 April 1949) FSA FRHS was a solicitor and historian whose writings centred on the market-town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire and its environs.

So fond of the building was he, that he even bade "trespassers and sacrilegious persons take warning, for I will proceed against them with the utmost rigour of the law, and, after my death and burial, I will endeavour, in all ghostly ways, to protect and haunt its hallowed walls".

[4] Hine studied law and became an articled clerk aged 18, working for the long-established firm of Hawkins and Company of Hitchin, but despite his claims to the contrary he did not qualify as a solicitor until he was 50 in 1933.

Hine suffered from depression in his later years, and in Confessions of an Uncommon Attorney (1946) he acknowledged that "the strain of leading a double life, the accumulation of office worries, and the burden of clients’ woes had worn me down".

[1][8] At the time of his death Hine faced being struck off as a solicitor for professional misconduct, having contacted both sides in a divorce case contrary to Law Society rules.

[6] Hine was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 19 April 1949, at the same time that his memorial service was being held at St Mary's Church in Hitchin.