[1] His mother was Sarah Hilda Haines, née Hall, for more than a quarter of a century the highly respected district nurse and midwife in Catshill, near Bromsgrove: she received the Royal Maundy in 1980 at Worcester.
While at Durham Haines came into contact with Professor Alexander Hamilton Thompson, whose scholarship was to remain an abiding influence.
In addition to the standard curriculum Haines taught heraldry, architecture, and medieval battles, and demonstrated motte-and-bailey castles with sand and matchsticks.
[6] He subsequently studied at Worcester College, Oxford, with the help of a grant from the Chance Educational Trust, eventually gaining a DPhil (1959).
[19] After retiring from Dalhousie Haines returned to the United Kingdom, where he lived in Putney before moving to Curry Rivel in Somerset.