>To me also, haitch is a common but ill-educated pronunciation,

That just goes to show how different the English language can be from one place to another. As I said, that is how we were taught to say our Hs while reciting our A-B-Cs

There would definitely be raised eyebrows if someone said aitch in English Québec and it would be evident that the person was an outsider - YET - move on over to Newfoundland and you would clearly be an outsider if you pronounced it haitch...and we're in the same country.