THE HAIN POTPOURRI
Hain Name Meaning
English: habitational name from any of various places named with Middle English heghen, a weak plural of hegh, from Old English (ge)hæg ‘enclosure’. See also Haynes.
English: from the Middle English personal name Hain, Heyne. This is derived from the Germanic personal name Hagano, originally a byname meaning ‘hawthorn’. It is found in England before the Conquest, but was popularized by the Normans. In the Danelaw, it may be derived from Old Norse Hagni, Hogni (see Hagan), a Scandinavianized version of the same name.
English: nickname for a wretched individual, from Middle English hain(e), heyne ‘wretch’, ‘niggard’.
German: topographic name for someone who lived by a patch of enclosed pastureland, Middle High German hage(n) (see Hagen 1), hain, or a habitational name from a place named Hain, from this word.
German: from the Germanic personal name Hagin, originally a byname from the same element as in 2 above.
Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): metronymic from the Yiddish personal name Khaye ‘life’ + the Slavic possessive suffix -in.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
Peter's middle name is Gerald, after his grandfather on his mother's side.
Peter was not born in South Africa but in Nairobi, Kenya.
His mother Adelaine worked for him as a part-time secretary both from home and in his offices. She was 64 years old when first employed (1991) finally retiring in 2009 at the age of 82. His sister, Sally, also worked for him, initially in Westminster and later in his Neath constituency office, until 2003.
Peter has praised the work done for him by his mother and sister. He was not so fortunate in his relationship with a member of staff at his Neath advice office, who ended up taking him to an industrial tribunal for unfair dismissal in 1998- and winning more than £3,000 in the process.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Minister+loses+payout+battle.-a061439361
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His younger brother Tom lives in Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Australia and in his own way has made headlines
http://prelive.goldcoast.com.au/article/2012/04/14/407735_tweed-byron-news.html
His business website is now headed: "Mr Mac Byron Bay ...........a legend in his own lunchtime".
Byron Bay may be the Oz equivalent of parts of West Wales in the 1960's and 1970's - a bit of a hippy retreat for the disaffected children of the middle classes, where they could congregate and play and put the world to right, knowing they could always fall back on the safety net of their relatively well-to-do middle class roots.
It is not known how Peter's brother came to move there, but apparently after living in South Africa he never was comfortable with the climate in the UK.
His father Walter was an author too, having written a book called: "Laboratories: A Briefing and Design Guide". The book was published in 1994 when he was 69 years of age.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Laboratories-Briefing-Design-Guide-Guides/dp/0419194800
It is not cheap, the paperback version currently shipping through Amazon UK at a cost of £75.
Peter's father died on 14 October, 2016 aged 91 years of age.
Peter Hain's Uncle Hugh was the millionaire owner of a construction company in South Africa in the 1960's.
One of Peter Hain's favourite dishes is marinated tuna steak - done in the Aga.
Peter Hain may be a bit of a gym bunny. In an interview with Petronella Wyatt in 2006 he is asked about his second wife and states: "Elizabeth is terrific. A really strong character. We have a very equal and challenging relationship. We do great things together. Like, er, we go to the gym." In an article about the Severn Barrage he states "When I'm at the gym, I'm always having people come up to me in the shower asking me why it hasn't happened yet". In his book "Outside In" he refers to taking up occupation of Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland and says he had "a couple of gym machines placed in a nearby empty room so I could get regular exercise while I was there". And in his book again he relates the story of a local pensioner who supported him regarding the Deputy Leadership registration of donors debacle, this time again in the local gym showers: "You hold your head high, Peter. Don't let them make you ill".
When he married his first wife, Patricia Western, his decision to get hitched apparently came to him while washing his VW Beetle early in February. "I pondered our future. Probably time to get married, I thought." He checked his diary, full of political commitments, and the following Saturday was the only one free. He phoned Pat at work and she agreed. The wedding duly took place apparently at the end of that week - on 8 February 1975.
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VWs seem to have played a large part in the Hain family life (possibly an advertising opportunity overlooked by VW?). Obviously there's the VW Beetle referred to above. When the Hains lived in South Africa his mother is on record as saying the family drove around in an old VW camper van. And in his book "Outside In" Peter refers to travelling to the Neath constituency as the prospective Labour candidate in his "battered Volkswagen camper van" and getting bitterly cold because the heater often did not work. He wore "a scarf, woolly hat and gloves" to combat the cold (obviously if VW have read this then that could explain them not pursuing the advertising opportunity - though if it was the same camper van they used years before in South Africa maybe VW should have overlooked the broken heater!)
In December 2002 a new, controversial business opened up right next door to Peter Hain's office in 39 Windsor Road, Neath. The business was called Little Amsterdam, and sold sex aids and paraphernalia associated with recreational drugs. Within a short period of time, the owner, Piet Manca, was fighting 14 allegations made against him and his firm by the trading standards department of Neath and Port Talbot Council.
The businessman, who was born locally claimed he was being victimised because his premises were an embarrassment to the politician and his staff.
Mr Manca said he was so concerned at the attention his business was attracting from the authorities that he intended to have the Neath shop ''debugged''.
"I am not paranoid, but I think it would be in my interests to have the premises checked over by an expert."
He further proposed to open a lap dancing club nearby (just across the road) with transvestites.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/3004687.stm
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-100881440.html
In interviews at the time Piet Manca insisted his goods were top quality and "not at all tacky''.
And he promised that Mr Hain would get a discount if he shopped in the store as a neighbour.
He said, "We sell all sorts of smoking gear and adult erotica, we've got hundreds of types of bongs and cannabis seeds.....On the adult side we sell rubber and leather fetish wear - whips and handcuffs and the like.''
Mr Manca, a father of two, insisted Mr Hain's constituents would not feel uncomfortable queuing up outside the politician's Neath office.
He said, "Our windows look really nice. We have a smoking side and an adult side with some nice-looking girls in rubber wear.....You can really see the quality just by looking at the window displays.''
Tragically Piet Manca died in an accident in Spain a few years later having moved there part-time to expand his business activities.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sexshop+owner+killed.-a0138145379
It's a well known fact that Peter Hain was a member of the Liberal Party before joining Labour. Both his parents were Liberals as well, actively campaigning over many years. However, after Peter joined the Labour Party in 1977, so eventually did both his parents although they did not join the Party until five years after him, in 1982 according to references in Hain's book "Outside In". There is some confusion here as in a Guardian article his parents are stated not to have joined the Labour Party until 1992, apparently influenced by Labour losing the general election that year.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/feb/15/southafrica.world
And replicating Peter's actions again, his parents moved from their flat in Putney to settle in the Neath Parliamentary constituency. They used to live in a village called Clyne but then apparently went to live in a house in a new housing development in Glynneath.
The Neath area has been quite a magnet for the Hains. Peter's son Sam and his wife also lived in the Neath constituency, in Resolven, but they have since moved back across the Severn Bridge to Cambridge. His other son, Jake, lives in Windsor and works in the renewable energy industry (windfarms) for a well known international company.
