{{Short description|British politician}} {{Use British English|date=December 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Sir Edward Hain | honorific_suffix = JP | image = | image_size = | caption = | office1 = Member of Parliament<br />for St Ives | term_start1 = 24 October 1900 | term_end1 = 8 January 1906 | predecessor1 = Thomas Bedford Bolitho | successor1 = Clifford Cory | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1851|12|26|df=yes}} | birth_place = St Ives, Cornwall | death_date = {{Death date and age|1917|9|20|1851|12|df=yes}} | death_place = St Ives, Cornwall | education = | occupation = Shipping magnate, politician | spouse = {{marriage |Catherine Seward |1882}} | parents = Edward Hain (1829 – 1899) | children = Grace <br />Edward<br />Kate }}
'''Sir Edward Hain''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|JP}} (26 December 1851 – 20 September 1917)<ref name="burkegreatwar">{{cite book |title= Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor= Burke, Sir Bernard |editor-link=Bernard Burke |edition=76th |year= 1914 |page= 2322 |ref=Burke }}</ref> was an English shipping magnate and politician from Cornwall, England. He represented St Ives as a Liberal Unionist from 1900 to 1904, and as a Liberal from 1904 to 1906. His shipping company, Hain Line, was sold to the recently merged Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and British-India Steam Navigation Company after his death.
==Personal life== Edward Hain was the son of Edward Hain, a shipping magnate and the latest in a long line of shipowners from Cornwall.<ref name=cornish270917>{{cite news |title=DEATH OF SIR. EDWARD HAIN |work=The Cornishman |date=27 September 1917 |access-date=19 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19170927/018/0003| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Hain was born at St Ives in December 1851 and received his education locally at Mr James Rowe's school, at Academy Steps, in Fore Street.<ref name="hotel">Christian Guild: [http://www.christianguild.co.uk/treloyhan/history.php Treloyhan Manor Hotel]</ref>
Hain did not originally intend to go into shipping. He went to London to work with a bank and then with a tea merchant. However, on his return to St Ives in 1878, his experience in the tea trade had convinced him that the family company should switch from sail to steam.<ref name="P&O">P&O Heritage: [http://www.poheritage.com/our-history/company-guides/hain-steamship-company The Hain Steamship Company]</ref>
In 1882, he was married to Catherine Seward. They had two daughters, one of whom died.<ref name=cornish270917/> Their son, Captain Edward Hain, was killed in the First World War while serving with the 1st Devon Yeomanry at Gallipoli.<ref>{{cite news |title=DEATH OF CAPT. EDWARD HAIN |work=The Cornishman |date=18 November 1915 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19151118/059/0005| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}<br />- {{cite news |title=THE LATE CAPT. EDWARD HAIN |work=The Cornishman |date=2 December 1915 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19151202/102/0006| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Edward Hain Hospital in St Ives was named after Captain Edward Hain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://s513102927.websitehome.co.uk/files/News/CommunicationsNews/Lost_Heir_to_the_Hain_Dynasty_in_Hospitals_Naming-1.pdf|title=Lost Heir to the Hain Dynasty in Hospitals Naming|first=Vivian A. |last=Stratton |access-date=21 February 2020}}</ref>
He owned "nearly all the lands between St Ives, Towednack and Zennor, known as the Porthia Estate.<ref name=cornish270917/> In 1892, Hain built for himself Treloyhan Manor overlooking St Ives Bay. Sir Edward’s family kept Treloyhan until about 1928, when the property was sold to a company formed to develop part of the extensive grounds as a building estate. The mansion itself was converted into a hotel, the Treloyhan Manor Hotel, which opened on 1 July 1930. During the Second World War, between 1941 and 1945, it housed the girls of Downs School, evacuated from Seaford in Sussex. In 1947, the building was acquired by the Wesley Guild for use as a guest house.<ref name="hotel"/>
Hain was described as an "ardent Nonconformist"; he was a benefactor of the United Methodist Church in St Ives and had a "very great interest" in temperance.<ref name=cornish270917/> Hain died on 20 September 1917, aged 65.<ref>{{cite news |title=DEATH OF SIR EDWARD HAIN |work=Manchester Evening News |date=20 September 1917 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000272/19170920/073/0003| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=BIRTHS, MARRIAGES AND DEATHS |work=The Cornishman |date=27 September 1917 |access-date=19 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19170927/107/0002| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He was survived by his widow and his daughter,<ref name=cornish270917/> Kate, who married Denis Shipwright on 21 March 1918.<ref>{{cite news |title=BIRTHS, MARRIAGES AND DEATHS |work=The Cornishman |date=28 March 1918 |access-date=19 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19180328/062/0002| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Shipwright would be elected as a Conservative MP for Penryn and Falmouth at the 1922 general election.<ref>Election supplement, ''The Times'', 17 November 1922, p. 24.</ref>
==Business== On his return to St Ives from London, he told his father that he could see no future in a line of small sailing vessels, and that if his father were not prepared to switch to steamships, he would leave the family business and seek a new career elsewhere.<ref name="hotel"/> Despite the company's long association with sailing ships, he was able to convince his sceptical father that the future of shipping depended on steam. He visited the shipyard of John Readhead & Co at South Shields with finance provided by Bolitho's bank (the forerunner of Barclays; a director, Thomas Bedford Bolitho, preceded Hain as MP of St Ives) and placed the first of many orders for the company. The first steamer was launched on 19 November 1878 and named ''Trewidden'' in honour of the Bolitho estate outside Penzance.<ref>{{cite news|title=Launch Of A New Steamer|work=The Cornishman|issue=20|date=28 November 1878|page=4}}</ref> The relationship between Hain and Readhead produced eighty-seven ships for the company, all with the prefix ‘Tre’ a Cornish word for "farmstead".<ref name="P&O"/> ''Trewidden'' was an iron-built 1,800-ton vessel, schooner-rigged, 240 feet long, and propelled by a screw. Other ships included ''Tregenna'', ''Trevethoe'', ''Trevarrack'', ''Trevalgan'', ''Tremeadow'', ''Treveal'' and ''Trelyon'' (a variant spelling of "Treloyhan", the Hain's estate).<ref name="hotel"/>
By 1901, he had founded a number of steamship companies (Edward Hain and Son, St Ives; Foster Hain and Co, Cardiff; Foster Hain and Read, London).<ref name="WBCA">{{cite news |title=MR. EDWARD HAIN, M.P., A FREE TRADER. ANNOUNCES INTENTION TO RESIGN. |work=West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser |date=15 October 1903 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000349/19031015/180/0006| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref> These were merged into one limited liability company — The Hain Steamship Company Limited - which owned twenty-two steamers.<ref name=cornish270917/><ref name="WP">[http://west-penwith.org.uk/hain.htm West Penwith Resources – Edward Hain 1851–1917]</ref>
In 1910, he was made President of the Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom having previously been vice-president.<ref name="Cornishman240210">{{cite news |title=HONOUR FOR MR. EDWARD HAIN |work=The Cornishman |date=24 February 1910 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19100224/060/0004| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In 1917, the shares of the Hain Line (valued at £4m) were sold to P&O and British India Steam Navigation Company. The twenty-seven Hain Line cargo steamers, totalling 108,787 gross tons had all been built by J Readhead and Sons of South Shields.<ref>{{cite news |title= ANOTHER SHIPPING FUSION. P. AND O. PURCHASE THE HAIN FLEET. |work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer |date=29 October 1917 |access-date=19 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19171029/087/0004| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Hain Steamship Company remained a separate operating subsidiary of P&O until 1964, when it merged a number of subsidiaries.<ref name="P&O"/>
Hain was proprietor of ''The Cornish Telegraph'' newspaper which he sold to ''The Cornishman''<ref name=cornish270917/> but he was always best known for his shipping company.
==Political life== Hain was elected to the St Ives Town Council in 1883 and was unanimously elected mayor a year later; he held that office for three successive years and six times in total. He also spent thirteen years on Cornwall County Council representing St Ives. He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1885. He was a Liberal and a "warm supporter" of Gladstone until the party split over Irish Home Rule, when he became a Liberal Unionist.<ref name=cornish270917/>
In 1900, when Thomas Bedford Bolitho retired as MP, Hain offered himself as successor<ref>{{cite news |title=POSTSCRIPT |work=The Cornishman |date=20 September 1900 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19000920/096/0005| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and was elected unopposed.<ref name=cornish270917/> He subsequently declined re-election as mayor of St Ives due to parliamentary and other duties.<ref>{{cite news |title=THE MAYORALTY OF ST. IVES |work=The Cornishman |date=8 November 1900 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19001108/098/0007| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In 1903 he had already announced that as a supporter of Free Trade he could no longer support the government of Arthur Balfour<ref name="WBCA"/> and, in 1904, he signed an open letter siding with the views of the Duke of Devonshire rather than Joseph Chamberlain,<ref>{{cite news |title=THE LIBERAL UNIONIST SPLIT |work=Sheffield Daily Telegraph |date=13 July 1904 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000250/19040713/088/0009| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref> the leading advocate of "tariff reform" (that is, imposing high tariffs in place of free trade). Devonshire and other supporters of Free Trade left the Liberal Unionist Association in 1904; Hain thenceforth sat as a Liberal.
At the 1906 general election, Hain retired as MP partly on political grounds and partly for health reasons<ref name=cornish270917/> and to devote himself more completely to shipping politics.<ref name="Cornishman240210"/>
He received a knighthood in the Birthday Honours in 1910 and in 1912, he was High Sheriff of Cornwall.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Birthday Honours |work=Western Daily Press |date=24 June 1910 |access-date=18 December 2014 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000264/19100624/573/0010| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/12277/page/873|date=19 August 1910|work=The Edinburgh Gazette|title=Issue:12277, Page:873|access-date=16 July 2015}}</ref><ref name="WP"/>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== {{Portal|Cornwall}} * {{cite book |last1=O'Donoghue |first1=K.J. |last2=Appleyard |first2=H.S. |date=1986 |title=Hain of St.Ives |location=Kendal |publisher=World Ship Society |isbn=978-0905617411}}
==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edward Hain}} * P&O Heritage: [http://www.poheritage.com/our-history/company-guides/hain-steamship-company The Hain Steamship Company] * Hansard 1803–2005: [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-edward-hain/index.html Contributions in Parliament by Edward Hain]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for St Ives | years = 1900 – 1906 | before = Thomas Bedford Bolitho | after = Clifford Cory }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hain, Edward}} Category:1851 births Category:1917 deaths Category:Liberal Unionist Party MPs for English constituencies Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for St Ives Category:UK MPs 1900–1906 Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:British businesspeople in shipping Category:High sheriffs of Cornwall Category:Members of Cornwall County Council Category:Knights Bachelor Category:People from St Ives, Cornwall Category:English justices of the peace Category:19th-century British businesspeople Category:Businesspeople awarded knighthoods