General Notes

WILLIAM STOBO HAINING was born on 18 July 1894 at the Railway Station House in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the only son of station master David HAINING and his wife, Anne Johnson Hay BOYD. William was educated at the Burgh School and Ayr Academy, he served his time with the Central Agency in Glasgow, and he was on the staff of the Oakbank Oil Company in Glasgow.

William enlisted for the war in November 1914 and joined the Motor machine Gun Corps. He first saw active service in May 1915, and was later invalided home in March 1916 as a result of shrapnel wounds and slight gassing.

In September 1916 he was commissioned into the machine Gun Corps, going on active service again in June when he was attached to the tanks. Six months later, during The Battle of Cambrai on 20 November 1917, William Haining was killed in action while he was commanding tank 2821 of 14th Coy., E Batallion. The tank was affectionately known as “Ella,” named after William's sister Isabella.

William Haining was a keen and enthusiastic golfer and was described as a young man of exceptionally fine character, with his death deplored by a wide circle of friends. He was a member of both the Prestwick St. Nicholas and Prestwick St. Cuthbert golf clubs. William's death is commemorated in numerous locations — on war memorials in the clubhouses of both clubs, on the Prestwick war memorial, at Ribecourt Road Cemetery in Trescault (near where he died in battle), and on the Haining monument in the Monkton & Prestwick Cemetery.

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Haining monument in Monkton & Prestwick Cemetery on Shaw Road in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland:

Affectionate Remembrance of
DAVID HAINING
STATION MASTER
WHO DIED 13TH JUNE 1930
IN HIS 69TH YEAR.
AND HIS WIFE
ANNE J. H. BOYD
WHO DIED 6TH AUGUST 1931
AGED 71 YEARS.
ALSO THEIR ONLY SON
WILLIAM STOBO
WHO FELL AT CAMBRAI
20TH NOV. 1917 AGED 23 YEARS.
THEIR DAUGHTER
ANNA STOBO
WHO DIED 22ND JAN. 1952
AGED 62 YEARS
WIFE OF ROBERT SHANKLAND.
ISABELLA CLELAND (ELLA)
WHO DIED 23RD JAN. 1955

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  Birth Notes

• 4.h.0.m. A.M. Railway Station House, Prestwick

  Death Notes

Battle of Cambrai

  Burial Notes

Buried at Ribecourt Road Cemetery, Plot: I. B. 1.  William is also memorialized on his parents’ gravestone in the Monkton and Prestwick Cemetery on Shaw Road in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. In addition to these two locations, William is also mentioned on several war memorials in Prestwick — the town war memorial, as well as on war memorials in the Prestwick St Cuthbert and Prestwick St Nicholas golf clubs.

  Recorded Events in His Life

• Gallery: Birth Certificate, on 18 July 1894, in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland.

• He resided at Railway Station House in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland.

• He served in the military as a Second Lieutenant in the Tank Corps in 1917 in France. ⁴

• He was buried at the Ribecourt Road Cemetery, Plot: I. B. 1. In Trescault, Departement du Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France in 1917.

• Cenotaph: Although he was not buried in Monkton and Prestwick Cemetery on Shaw Road (A79) in 1917, there is a memorial in his honor in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland.

• War Memorial: William’s death is commemorated on the Prestwick war memorial in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland.
  
  The Prestwick War Memorial was unveiled in 1921. Today it bears the names of 177 sons and daughters of Prestwick who gave their lives in the Great War of 1914-1918 and the Second World War of 1939-1945.
  
  The war memorial was designed by the architect James A. Morris (1857 –1942), who is generally regarded as the best architect to have worked in the County of Ayrshire. He designed many buildings in the local area including a number in Prestwick such as the Unionist Buildings, or Town Hall (1898), and The South Church (1882 –1884). The war memorial commissions, including that at Prestwick, carried out after the Great War by Morris, were particularly poignant for Morris as his own son, George, was killed in the conflict whilst serving with the Royal Flying Corps.

• William Stobo Haining is also listed on The Prestwick St. Nicholas Golf Club War Memorial in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland.

• War Memorial: William’s death is commemorated on the war memorial at the Prestwick St Cuthbert Golf Club, in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland.