Sculptor, medallist, teacher and painter, born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, named after the World War I leader General Douglas Haig. Douglas’s education was hindered by childhood tuberculosis, and he said that he “left school at 11”. His mother entered him successfully for many drawing competitions; his interest in sculpture was aroused after he joined Sheffield School of Art aged 14; and after six years there a scholarship took him to the Royal College of Art. He studied under Richard Garbe, 1938–40, and, after Army service, with Frank Dobson, 1946–7, the Royal College having been evacuated to Ambleside. Wain-Hobson won a sculpture Silver Medal in 1946, in 1947 a Rome Scholarship. He and his wife Joan, whom he had met at the Royal College, returned to England in 1950 after three years in Italy, and he joined the College staff.
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He stayed for 15 years, becoming a senior lecturer. He also taught part-time at Regent Street Polytechnic and Kingston School of Art. Wain-Hobson showed work in the 1951 Festival of Britain, exhibited in Battersea Park and was a runner-up in the ICA-organised The Unknown Political Prisoner competition, 1953, the grand prize won by Reg Butler. Clients for Wain-Hobson’s sculpture ranged from the government of Algeria, Hoare’s Bank in Fleet Street and Norwich Union Insurance to the Royal Veterinary College, Boots the Chemists and churches. Manchester City Art Gallery bought his work, which was in many international group shows, solo exhibitions taking place in London, Rome, Manchester and Sheffield. For the Royal Mint he designed coins, medals and Commonwealth seals. Notable commissions included his huge figure of William Shakespeare, for the new Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1964, accompanied by an abstract relief. In 1968 Wain-Hobson moved to Manchester Polytechnic as head of the department of fine art, later becoming dean of the faculty of art and design. He retired in 1983 to Wilmslow, Cheshire, where he returned to painting.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
