The Pipes in the War, 1914-1918
The Western Front
During the autumn2 and winter of 1914-15 pipers, for obvious reasons, had few opportunities of attracting much attention, still less of performing their highest duty, viz. playing their companies into action. They were necessarily, on account of the extreme shortage of men, for the most part employed in the ranks; and in many of the old Regular battalions pipe bands disappeared altogether.
For a time it seemed that the critics were right, and that in warfare in the twentieth century there was no longer a place for a class of man which was destined to disappear, as the bard and the harper had done in days lang syne.
This view was widely held, and in some regiments was never modified.
But gradually, as attacks became more frequent and movements set in, and as the British Army grew stronger in numbers, the position changed, and the piper became more than an invaluable marching instrumentalist or performer at ceilidhs in billets.
The first occasion on which pipers played, or tried to play, their companies into action was at Cuinchy on 25th January 1915, when the 1st Black Watch suffered such heavy casualties in advancing through deep mud up to their knees.
It was at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 that the company piper really had his first chance of showing what he could do, as a piper, in action. On this occasion the 20th Brigade had to carry the stronghold of Moulin du Piètre, and lost very heavily; the 2nd Gordons were in the main attack and the 6th Gordons, a Territorial unit, in reserve. The 6th Gordons were called upon to support their comrades of the old Regular Army, and advanced, headed by their pipes and drums, with a rush which carried many of them beyond their objective.
From that time onwards, right up to the end of the war, pipers have repeatedly played their units into action, in spite of the unfavourable conditions resulting from modern rifle and artillery fire and gas, and have established the standard of gallantry in this respect which has been at once the admiration of all observers and an incentive to their successors to emulate them.
During the first weeks’ heavy fighting, in April-May 1915, on the left of the attenuated British line of the Ypres salient, the pipers of Canadian battalions took a prominent part. In their advance on the St. Julien wood the 16th Canadians were led by their company pipers, two of whom were killed and two wounded while playing; their places were at once taken by others, who played the battalion through the German trenches at the heels of the retiring enemy to the tune “We’ll tak’ the guid auld way.” In many subsequent actions these men distinguished themselves in the same way.
After the failure of the first attack on the German line at Rue des Bois on 9th May 1915, in the action of Richebourg-Festubert, the 1st Black Watch were played to a fresh attack by their company pipers. “With their characteristic fury they had vanished into the smoke, and the only evidence that remained was the sound of the pipes.” When they reached the German trenches a piper, Andrew Wishart, stood on the parados playing until he was wounded. Another piper, W. Stewart, was awarded the D.C.M. on this occasion.
The same thing happened in the case of the 2nd Black Watch at Festubert, the companies being led by their pipers. Of these men two, Pipers Gordon and Crichton, were specially mentioned for their gallantry. The Seaforth pipers, too, suffered heavily in this as in many later actions—“Caber Feidh” has often been heard along that line which looked so weak, but was too strong for the Germans.
In the action at Festubert on the 17th May the 4th Camerons got further than any other battalion, and were played in by their pipe major, J. Ross, and four pipers. These men got through untouched, though their pipes were all injured.
Later again, on 16th June 1915, when the Hooge salient was straightened by the 3rd Division, the attack was led by the 8th Brigade, and the enemy front and support lines were taken. On this occasion Pipe Major Daniel Campbell, although wounded, played his battalion, the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers, over the top.
Dawn was just breaking when the Pipe Major scrambled out on the parapet and started playing. The men raced forward after him until stopped by uncut wire. In the hand-to-hand fighting which ensued the Pipe Major threw aside his pipes and, catching up a bayonet, joined in the attack.
It was during the Ypres fighting, where gas was first used against us, that an incident occurred of which the facts are as stated, but unfortunately it has been found impossible to get the names of the men concerned.
“The men, looking into the storm of shells that swept their course and at the awful cloud of death now almost on them, wavered, hung back—only for a moment. And who will dare to blame them?
“Two of the battalion pipers who were acting as stretcher bearers saw the situation in a moment. Dropping their stretcher they made for their dug-out and emerged a second later with their pipes. They sprang on the parapet, tore off their respirators and charged forward. Fierce and terrible the wild notes cleft the air... after fifteen yards the pibroch ceased; the two pipers, choked and suffocated with the gas fumes, staggered and fell.”3
Although in these earlier actions pipers had done much to maintain the traditions of the past they had never had the opportunities of distinguishing themselves that came to them during the great operations about Loos in September 1915. The attack of two army corps, in which were thirty Scottish battalions, along a seven-mile front, was a chance for these men, and one of which they were not slow to avail themselves. Three pipers at least earned the title of “The piper of Loos,” and one of these, Daniel Laidlaw, of the 7th King’s Own Scottish Borderers, was awarded the Victoria Cross; but, in the general orgie of gallantry which characterised those operations, individual pipers in very many cases won the highest praise in their own units but escaped the official recognition they had earned.
The attack by the 28th Brigade on the Hohenzollern Redoubt was accompanied by fearful casualties; with uncut wire in front, in an atmosphere heavily laden with gas, exposed to machine-gun fire in front and flank, the 6th K.O.S.B., 10th and 11th H.L.I. and 9th Seaforths were decimated. The K.O.S.B. were played over the top by their veteran Pipe Major, Robert Mackenzie, an old soldier of forty-two years’ service. He was severely wounded and died the following day.
On the right of this Brigade the 26th had better luck, as the wire was found to be more thoroughly cut. The 5th Camerons and 7th Seaforths led the way followed by the 8th Gordons and 8th Black Watch, and reached Fosse 8, where they hung on, though reduced to the strength of a single battalion.
“The heroism of the pipers was splendid. In spite of murderous fire they continued playing. At one moment, when the fire of the machine guns was so terrific that it looked as if the attack must break down, a Seaforth piper dashed forward in front of the line and started ‘Caber Feidh.’ The effect was instantaneous—the sorely pressed men braced themselves together and charged forward. The Germans soon got to realise the value of the pipes and tried to pick off the pipers.”
In this one attack the 5th Camerons had three pipers killed and eight wounded. Further south the pipers of the 2nd and 6th Gordons led their companies in the costly attack on Hulluch and the Quarries. An officer of the Devons, on their flank, writes:
“I shall never forget those pipes.... During the charge a Gordon piper continued playing after he was down.”
On the other side of the Hulluch road the 15th Division received its baptism of fire, and lost 6000 men in the two days’ fighting. One of the battalions of the 46th Brigade, the 7th King’s Own Scottish Borderers, afforded an admirable example of the value of the pipes in rallying men when the position is critical. The piper concerned, Daniel Laidlaw, was awarded the Victoria Cross and the Croix de Guerre. The London Gazette Notification, which does not err on the side of uncontrolled emotionalism, describes the award as follows:
“For most conspicuous bravery.... During the worst of the bombardment, when the attack was about to commence, Piper Laidlaw, seeing that his company was somewhat shaken from the effects of gas, with absolute coolness and disregard of danger, mounted the parapet, marched up and down and played his company out of the trench. The effect of his splendid example was immediate, and the company dashed out to the assault. Piper Laidlaw continued playing his pipes until he was wounded.”
The evidence of eye-witnesses shows that, at the time, a cloud of gas was settling down on the trench and there was heavy machine-gun fire. Laidlaw played “Blue Bonnets over the Border,” and the effect on the men was indescribable; as they followed him over the top he changed to “The Standard on the Braes of Mar.” The old tune was surely never played to better purpose; and if Laidlaw’s action stood alone, if he were the only piper during the war who stimulated a company at the moment when things were at their worst, surely that achievement amply supports the view that, even in the warfare of to-day, piob mhor is an instrument of war which can justify all claims made for it. As it is, Piper Laidlaw, “the Piper of Loos,” stands as type of a class of men who, throughout the war, have lived up to the traditions of a great past.
Another piper of the same battalion, Douglas Taylor, being wounded and unable to play, spent thirty-six hours bringing in gassed men without relief, until he himself was dangerously wounded. Further on, the 44th Brigade—the 8th Seaforths, 7th Camerons, 9th Black Watch and 10th Gordons—made the historic charge which captured Loos and then went on, until, for want of support, they could get no further and were compelled to retire. They rallied on Hill 70 round a tattered flag made out of a Cameron kilt. The battalions of this brigade were played into and beyond Loos; and, when they were widely scattered and mixed up, pipers played to rally the men of their own battalions. Among many others, Piper Charles Cameron of the 11th Argylls stood out in the open playing unconcernedly, and was thereafter known in his battalion as “the Piper of Loos.”
The shattered remnants of the 15th Division were withdrawn in the evening from the blood-stained slopes of Hill 70, but the battalions were played in by their own pipers. The 9th Black Watch numbered only 100 of all ranks and one piper; the 7th Cameron pipers were practically annihilated, the 8th Seaforths lost ten, and others suffered in similar degree.
It is a far cry from Hill 70 to Scaur Donald, and they were only regimental pipers, but to these brave men the words of the old song are surely applicable.
“There let him rest in the lap of Scaur Donald,
The wind for his watcher, the mist for his shroud,
Where the green and the grey moss shall weave their wild tartan,
A covering meet for a chieftain so proud.”
In the fighting subsidiary to the main action of Loos, at Mauquissart and in the neighbourhood of Neuve Chapelle, the 2nd Black Watch pipers distinguished themselves greatly. They played their companies into and beyond the first line of German trenches. One of them, A. Macdonald, stood playing on the German parapet while the position was being cleared, and then on, through a hurricane of fire, over three lines of trenches, until dangerously wounded. For this he was given the D.C.M.
Three others, J. Galloway, R. Johnstone and David Armit, did precisely the same; and yet another, David Simpson, behaved with such gallantry that he also came to be known as “the Piper of Loos,” the third of the brave trio to earn that honourable title. He had already played over three lines of German trenches, and was leading towards the fourth when he was killed. Johnstone, on this occasion, played till he fell gassed.
Throughout the long succession of actions which punctuated the Somme operations in 1916, the pipes continued to be much in evidence, and references to them and to their effect upon the men during that bloody fighting are frequent in the contemporary reports of observers, and in private letters subsequently published. French reports also have placed on record their admiration for the company pipers of Scottish regiments. “Some of the finest work,” writes one well-known French military writer, “was accomplished at the very outset by the Highlanders, who carried the trenches in lightning fashion, urged on by the inspiriting music of their pipes.”
The fighting at Loos had shown, on a comparatively small scale, that the pipes, when freed from the restrictions placed upon their employment by the exigencies of trench warfare, were still capable of fulfilling their historic rôle in open fighting The gallantry of the pipers at Hulluch and Hill 70 was worthy of the units they led, and established a record which was hard to beat; but for months on end their great achievements were emulated by those of their successors in the new armies which had poured into the field.
The opening attack on the 1st July affords numerous examples of pipers playing their companies into action, and a few may be taken as representative of the whole.
In the attack by the 32nd Division the 17th H.L.I, succeeded, with a loss of over 500 men, in capturing and holding part of the Leipzig redoubt, though unsupported for a considerable time. The Commanding Officer writes:
“I told the Pipe Major to play; he at once responded, getting into a small hollow, and playing and greatly heartening the men as they lay there hanging on to the captured position. Pipe Major Gilbert showed a total disregard of danger and played as if he were on a route march. For this action he obtained the Military Medal.”
In the advance on Mametz on the same day the 2nd Gordons were led by their company pipers. An officer of an English battalion in the 20th Brigade describes how “we heard their pipes play these fellows over. It sounded grand against the noise of shells, machine guns and rifle fire. I shall never forget them.”
The same thing occurred later when the battalion attacked the orchards of Ginchy. On both occasions the casualties were very heavy.
At Fricourt Pipe Major David Anderson of the 15th Royal Scots stood out in front of the battalion until he was wounded, and played across shell-beaten ground under heavy fire. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre.
The two battalions of Tyneside Scottish were similarly played to their attack on La Boiselle and the ridge in front of it on the opening day of the battle of the Somme. A correspondent who was present says:
“The Tynesiders were on our right, and, as they got the signal to advance, I saw a piper—I think he was the Pipe Major—jump out of the trench and march straight towards the German lines. The tremendous rattle of machine-gun and rifle fire completely drowned the sound of his pipes, but he was obviously playing as though he would burst the bag, and, faintly through the roar of battle, we heard the mighty cheer his comrades gave as they swarmed after him. How he escaped I can’t understand, for the ground was literally ploughed up by the hail of bullets; but he bore a charmed life, and the last glimpse I had of him as we, too, dashed out showed him still marching erect, playing on regardless of the flying bullets and of the men dropping all round him.”
Of the two battalions 10 pipers were killed and 5 wounded, and Pipe Major Wilson and Piper G. Taylor both got the Military Medal. Many of these pipers, having played their companies up to the German trenches, took an active part in the fighting as bombers.
Again, at Longueval on 14th July, regimental pipers were conspicuous. As the 26th Brigade—8th Black Watch, 10th Argylls, 9th Seaforths, and 5th Camerons—commenced their advance, they were exposed to frontal and enfilading machine-gun fire, and shrapnel mowed them down; but their pipers led the way, and the men followed cheering and shouting.
“Where we were the brunt of the action fell on two New Army battalions of historic Highland regiments. Their advance was one of the most magnificent sights I have ever seen. They left their trenches at dawn, and a torrent of bullets met them. They answered immediately—with the shrill music of the pipes, and, indifferent apparently to the chaos around them, pushed steadily on towards their objective.”
Describing the attack by the 10th Argylls, another observer writes:
“We came under a blistering hot fire, but the men never hesitated. In the middle of it all the pipes struck up “The Campbells are coming,” and that made victory a certainty for us. We felt that whatever obstacles there barred our path they had to be overcome.... The last fight was the worst of all. It was at the extreme end of the village, where the enemy had possession of some ruined houses. They had a clear line of fire in all directions, and we were met with a murderous hail of fire. For a moment the men wavered. I doubted if they were equal to it. Then a piper sprang forward, and the strains broke out once more. The attacking line steadied and dashed at the last stronghold of the Huns. Their line snapped under our onslaught.”
On this occasion the Pipe Major, Aitken, a man of sixty, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. One of the pipers referred to in the above incident was James Dall, and his Commanding Officer considers his action in playing the regimental march at this juncture was the means of his company gaining their objective; the other was D. Wilson, who was also mentioned in despatches with Dall.
Of the attack by the 9th Seaforths a wounded officer writes:
“We swept on until we finally carried the German trench with a rousing cheer to the strain of the pipes. The heroism of the pipers was splendid. In spite of murderous fire they kept playing on. At one moment, when the fire was so terrific it looked as if the attack must break down, one of the pipers dashed forward and started playing. The change could be felt at once, the sorely pressed men gave a mighty cheer and dashed forward with new zeal.”
North of Longueval the 1st Gordons made a furious attack, on the 18th July, and on this occasion they were led by their pipers.
“They were out of sight over the parapet, but we could hear at intervals their shouts of ‘Scotland for ever!’ and the faint strains of the pipes. Then we saw them reappear, and then came prisoners.”
Similar accounts were given of the 6th and 7th Gordons. In the 6th Gordons Piper Charles Thomson had his arm blown off while playing. “The gallantry of these men who wear the tartans of the old Scottish clans would seem wonderful if it were not habitual with them. Their first dash for Longueval was one of the finest exploits of the war. They were led forward by the pipers, who went with them, not only towards the German lines, but across them and into the thick of the battle.... In that September fighting the pipe major of a Gordon battalion played his men forward and then was struck below the knee; but he would not be touched by a doctor until the others had been tended. He was a giant of a man and so heavy that no stretcher could hold him, so they put him in a tarpaulin and carried him back. Then he had his leg amputated and died.”4
On the 3rd September the 4th Black Watch were played into action and had to capture a village. According to an eye-witness:
“It was magnificent to see these men charge up the narrow street leading to the second barricade. Amid the ruined houses on each side the enemy were posted. At the moment when it was hottest the strains of the pipes were heard. The men answered with a cheer and swept steadily on over the barricade and through the ruins; and the village was ours.”
Of a Seaforth battalion a similar story is told:
“The men simply raced into the storm of bullets... at last it became too terrible for any human being to stand against it. The attacking lines melted away, the men seeking what cover could be found.... It was here that the pipers of the Seaforths had their chance. They took it. As the men advanced again to the attack they were cheered on by the strains of the pipes, which could just be heard. The men dashed through, clearing out the enemy as they went.”
During the attack on Beaumont Hamel in October, as in the earlier fighting at Thiepval, the pipers of the 15th H.L.I. lost very heavily when leading their companies.
Such instances of the bravery of pipers and of the stimulus afforded by the pipes to men in action became matters of almost every-day occurrence, and, though everyone recognised the tremendous losses that were the result of their exposure, there were occasions when those losses were more than compensated for at the time by the results obtained. Everywhere, at Contalmaison, Martinpuich, Pozières, Delville Wood, wherever Scottish troops were employed, their pipers played their historic rôle, and, to quote Philip Gibbs, “over the open battlefields came the music of the Scottish pipes, shrill above the noise of gunfire.”
Nor were the pipers of purely Scottish regiments left to establish these records of bravery unchallenged. They had keen rivals in battalions of overseas Scots, notably the South African Scottish and the Canadians.
During the fighting for Delville Wood in July the South Africans were torn to pieces by shell fire. The remains of the battalion hung on for days, losing all their officers but the colonel. When relief came their pipers headed the blackened and weary warriors out of the wood of death.
Similarly, the 16th Canadian Scottish pipers maintained the fine reputation they had earned on the Ypres salient. When the battalion moved up to the attack on the Regina trench on 8th October, there was keen competition among the pipers as to who should be allowed to play them over. “Four pipers, Richardson, Park, M’Kellar and Paul marched ahead of the battalion with the Commanding Officer for a distance of half a mile under intense machine-gun fire and escaped scatheless. They could be heard clearly as they played ‘We’ll take the good old way,’ and, as they passed, wounded men lying in shell holes raised themselves on their elbows and cheered them. When they got near the German line the battalion encountered uncut wire which, being unusually heavy, took some time to cut. While this was going on Piper Richardson played up and down outside the wire for twenty minutes in the face of almost certain death.... Shortly afterwards a company sergeant major was wounded, and Richardson volunteered to take him out. After he had gone he remembered he had left his pipes behind. He left the sergeant major in safety in a shell hole and returned. He was never heard of again.”
This brave man was awarded a posthumous V.C., the second piper to obtain this coveted distinction. Piper Paul was subsequently given the Military Medal.
At the capture of the Vimy Ridge on 9th April, 1917, by the Canadians, the pipers of some of their battalions took a prominent part. On this occasion the 16th Canadian Scottish repeated what they had done in previous engagements, their companies being led by pipers. The pipers concerned were Pipe Major Groat and Pipers M’Gillivray, M’Nab, M’Allister, M’Kellar and Paul, and they advanced a distance of over a mile under heavy fire without any casualties. The Pipe Major was awarded the Military Medal.
Similarly the 25th Canadians had their pipers out in this action, and Piper Walter Telfer, who went on playing after being severely wounded, was given the Military Medal; Piper Brand got the same decoration.
Later on, in the fighting round Arras, a battalion of the Camerons was played to the attack:
“When the order came our men went over with right good will. It was a thrilling moment, especially when the pipes struck up the Camerons’ march. I believe it was that music, at that particular moment, which made it possible for us to go through the ordeal that followed.”
Once again “The March of the Cameron Men” was the undoing of an enemy which had to stand up against the Camerons; and in one part of the line, when the attack was most furiously resisted, the company piper changed his tune to the old “Piobaireachd Dhomnuil Duibh”—
“Fast they came, fast they come,
See how they gather!
Wide waves the eagle’s plume
Blended with heather.”
An account of the few minutes before “zero” by a piper of this battalion appeared in the Scottish Field (“Pipes of the Misty Moorland,” John M’Gibbon), and affords a good example of the steadying effect of the pipes in a period of great strain on morale:
“I looked down at the company and I could see they were shaken.... I slung my rifle over my back and took up the pipes; that cheered them. I played through two or three tunes and then birled up ‘Tullochgorum.’ They fairly hooched it and stamped time with their feet. It was close on ‘zero’... when I changed to ‘The March of The Cameron Men.’ Our guns burst out with drum fire behind us... and the men jumped the parapet like deer and raced over the broken ground at the double. I kept up ‘The Cameron Men.’... I reached the parapet of the first enemy trench, when I ‘stopped one’ with my leg, and down I went in a heap.”
The pipes were again to the front in the fighting for Hill 70 on the Lens-Loos line in August, 1917. It was surely appropriate enough that, in the advance over the very country in which so many Scottish regiments had fought, with only temporary success, two years before, the pipes should again be at the head of the units which recaptured those blood-soaked positions.
An officer, describing the advance of the 13th Royal Highlanders of Canada, says:
“Our advance was resumed and we swarmed over the top at three different points. Away to the left, which was the objective of our advance, the strains of the pipes could be heard, and across the hills, where so many Scottish lads had fallen two years ago, there burst a loud triumphant cheer as the Canadian Highlanders pressed on to complete their work.”
And so it happened that the gallant lads of the 15th Division were avenged.
Opportunities for pipers continued during the later fighting in 1917-18. Records of individual companies and platoons show that on several occasions the pipes encouraged the men to further effort. In one case near Albert, a company of the Black Watch was temporarily cut off from its supports after getting into a German trench and suffered heavily; the men were crushed by superior numbers, and the prospect was black until the piper, who was present as a stretcher bearer, started playing. This had a great effect on the company, which held on to the position until reinforcements arrived.
In the fighting about Albert in August, 1918, several instances occurred of pipers playing their companies to the attack.
On the whole, however, at this stage in the war, it was being found increasingly difficult to renew the depleted ranks of the pipe bands, and most regiments were simply driven to keeping their pipers out of action as far as possible, except on special occasions. But there were still enough left of them to lead their units ever further eastward as the tide of war rolled back.
Incidents frequently occurred showing that their experience of four years’ fighting had not damped the ardour of pipers in action.
On one occasion a 16th Canadian piper went into action playing on top of a tank, and was killed. At Amiens, the pipers of the 16th and 48th Highlanders of Canada played the battalions to the attack in August, 1918.
As the German defeat became increasingly apparent and the British forces drove the enemy before them, pipers again got an opportunity of leading their companies to the attack. During the fighting about Albert-Arras in August, 1918, Scottish troops were heavily engaged. Lieut. Edouard Ross, of the French interpreter staff, describes an attack by a battalion of the Black Watch in which a detachment with a piper got into the German trenches; they were all wounded, and their position was dangerous, but the piper started playing, and the sound rapidly brought reinforcements, who captured the position.
Gallipoli
In Gallipoli, as on the Western front, pipers added lustre to their reputation; and incidents which occurred to some of them showed that they were stout fighting men even after their pipes were put out of action.
The nature of the terrain generally precluded the more spectacular duty of playing their units to the attack, and the heavy casualties in the force and the constant demand for men resulted in their being frequently employed in the ranks; nevertheless, several cases did occur of company pipers acting as such.
On 12th July, 1916, when the 6th H.L.I. captured three lines of Turkish trenches, Pipers W. Mackenzie and M’Niven played at the head of their companies; M’Niven was killed, and Mackenzie, putting down his pipes, took part in the fighting with a Turkish shovel and did great execution.
On the same day the pipers of the 7th H.L.I. led their battalion into action, and only one of them was wounded. Of these men one, Piper Kenneth MacLennan, was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal “for playing his pipes during the attack and advancing with the line after his pipes had been shattered by shrapnel, and heartening the wounded under fire.” Another, Piper Cameron, played his company over three lines of trenches, with a revolver hanging on his wrist, and earned a mention in despatches; and Piper Macfarlane played through two bayonet charges until two of his drones were blown off by shell fragments.
Writing of the fighting on 12th July, a wounded officer writes:
“The sound of the pipes undoubtedly stirred them on, a piper belonging to each of the two battalions, 5th Argylls and 7th H.L.I., having mounted the parapets of their own trenches, and there in full danger played their comrades on to victory.”
In the attack on Achi Baba there was no opportunity for pipers as such, though Pipe Major Andrew Buchan played the 4th Royal Scots “over the top,” and, as an officer writes: “fearless of all danger went along the line and did much to hearten the men.” Buchan was killed.
Of the pipers of the 5th Royal Scots none survived the early days of the fighting on the Peninsula. An officer of the regiment wrote that they “gloriously upheld the traditions established long ago.” In the Achi Baba fighting four were killed and four wounded.
Casualties in action and by disease took heavy toll of the pipers of all these battalions, and after a few months on the Peninsula the pipe bands temporarily ceased to exist.
Even before the withdrawal of the force from Gallipoli it was found that so many casualties had occurred among the pipers of the battalions engaged that the bands were well on the way to extinction. Consequently, under the able management of Colonel Maclean of Pennycross a divisional band numbering twelve pipers and six drummers—all that remained—was organised out of the wreck of the pipe bands of the 52nd Division. That band, though never sent into action, individually or collectively played frequently under shell fire; and “Hey Johnnie Cope” could be heard quite distinctly every morning in the firing line up to within a few days of the evacuation.
The divisional band served on the Desert front in Egypt, and then accompanied the Division right into Palestine, playing the leading battalion, the 4th K.O.S.B.’s, over the frontier to “Blue Bonnets over the Border.”
Later on, more pipers and more Scottish units appeared; and so we find the 2nd London Scottish being played into Jerusalem, and “Dumbarton’s Drums” sounding at the head of the Royal Scots as they took over the guard on the Holy Sepulchre—as is the right of “Pontius Pilate’s Bodyguard.”
Salonika
Opportunities for the employment of pipers as such were comparatively rare in the course of the Salonika operations, for obvious reasons. At Karadzakot Zir, however, the 1st Royal Scots pipers played their companies to the attack on the village, and the C.O. reported that, in his opinion,
“It was largely due to the presence of the pipers with the leading wave that the enemy evacuated their trenches and retired in disorder.”
Mesopotamia
Playing the pipes in the Golden East is a far greater effort than it is at home, and every piper who has soldiered there knows how the heat and the dryness of the atmosphere affect his bag and reeds. But the cult of piob mhor thrives east of Suez, and at least as much enthusiasm is shown by regiments stationed in India as in a home station.
And when Scottish troops were called upon to take their part in the Mesopotamia operations, we find the pipes as prominent a feature in the fighting as they were on the Western front. At Sheikh Saad on 7th January, 1916, the 1st Seaforths—the “Reismeid Caber Feidh”—were played to the attack across absolutely open ground by their Pipe Major Neil M’Kechnie and other pipers. An officer who was present describes the incident as follows:
“As we advanced over the dead flat open desert the Turks suddenly opened a very heavy fire from well concealed trenches at a range of from 600 to 800 yards. The battalion immediately advanced by rushes towards the enemy’s position in spite of very heavy initial losses. Foremost among the men was our acting Pipe Major, M’Kechnie, who immediately struck up the regimental charge or ‘onset,’ ‘Cabar Feidh.’
“His fine example as well as his music had a remarkable effect on the men at such a critical moment. He was shortly afterwards wounded, and had to drop behind as the lines went on.”
In the same action the 2nd Black Watch were played in by their pipers just as they had been on many previous occasions in France. In the act of playing Corpl. Piper MacNee was mortally wounded. This brave man had been wounded before at Mauquissart and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. The Pipe Major, John Keith, was awarded the D.C.M. for “gallant and distinguished service throughout the operations.”
The Last Stage
For four years and a half the pipes of war played their part in the greatest war in history; in the front, under conditions in which they could never have been expected to exist at all, they have led men to victory, have rallied them when victory eluded their grasp, and have marched them back undismayed by the tortures of battle; behind the lines they have headed the long columns of Scottish troops on their way up to the furnace in which the fate of nations was cast.
But, everywhere, they expressed the ideal of the race and led men to follow causes, even causes which appeared lost ones, through to the end.
When silence fell on the 11th November, 1918, along the blasted line where rival civilisations had so long struggled for mastery, the rôle of the pipes changed, and it was no longer the “onset” that the piper was impelled to play. The consummation of long effort had been attained—and what instrument more entitled to bear witness to the fact than the one which had sounded over the blood-stained slag-heaps of Loos, the shell-swept heights of Vimy?
As the British First Army entered Valenciennes, the pipers of a historic Scottish division played through the “place” opposite the Hotel de Ville, and must have awakened in the old gabled houses memories of the centuries old alliance between the Lilies of France and the Thistle.
Further east, along the roads that led to Cologne, the pipes played unceasingly, as befitted the occasion, impressing on the population that this was indeed the coming of “Scotland the Brave.”
And so, over the great Rhine bridge, the pipes of the 9th and Canadian Divisions led the way, and Germany learnt at last that when piob mhor sounds “Gabhaidh sin an rathad mor”5 it generally attains its objective.
Pipers in the Ranks
The piper is, first and last, a fighting man; and when a regiment is mobilised it at once loses most of its pipers. Whatever the strength of the band may have been in peace time, only the “sergeant piper”—a hideous official term for the pipe major—and five “full” pipers are normally retained as such. The remainder, while acting as pipers when opportunity offers—and designated accordingly—serve in the ranks.
During this war, and notably during the early years of it, it was often found necessary to make use of full and acting pipers in some purely military capacity, i.e. either in the ranks, or as Lewis gunners, bombers, orderlies, runners or stretcher bearers. This fact accounts for many of the honours awarded to pipers, and, at the same time, for the heavy casualties among them.
It is quite impossible to do justice to individuals or units in regard to the part they played in performing such duties; for those who obtained official recognition, in some form or other, hundreds have merely had the satisfaction of playing the game, in accordance with the rules laid down by all ranks of the British army. The few examples given in this place are typical of the whole.
At Festubert in June, 1915, the pipers of the 6th Seaforths worked continuously day and night, and brought 170 casualties from the front line to the dressing station; at Loos the 9th Black Watch lost nearly all their pipers when similarly engaged, and at the two actions of Loos and Neuve Chapelle the 6th Gordons had two killed and ten wounded.
Again, the 2nd Royal Scots pipers lost heavily on the Somme, and were on one occasion highly commended for bringing water up to some newly captured trenches under heavy fire.
The comments of General Sir William Birdwood in a despatch to the Australian Government, though intended to apply to Australian stretcher bearers, are very applicable to pipers acting in this capacity, whether individually or collectively:
“Where all have done so well it is very hard to differentiate, but as a class the stretcher bearers have been beyond praise. Never for a second have they flinched from going forward time after time, absolutely regardless of the fire brought against them; and I so deeply regret that they should have suffered in consequence.”
Another and most hazardous class of duty, which was largely performed by pipers in some battalions, was that of “runners” or despatch carriers; this often involved crossing heavily shelled country, and has resulted in many casualties. Notable cases have occurred of men carrying despatches through intense barrages, and some have received rewards; the majority of such cases, however, have necessarily been unnoticed.
Some men appear to have specialised in this duty, e.g. Pipe Major Matheson, 1st Seaforths, who got the D.C.M. “for gallant conduct on many occasions in conveying messages under heavy fire,” and Lance-Corpl. Piper Dyce, 13th Royal Highlanders of Canada, who on one occasion carried a most urgent despatch through artillery barrage when badly wounded.
In other cases pipers, individually and collectively, have done admirable service in bringing up ammunition.
Many instances of acts of heroism by individual men are detailed below.
Pipers on the March
Playing the pipes in action, though essentially the most important, is, for obvious reasons, only one of the duties of the soldier piper. Every unit of an army is not always in close touch with the enemy, and every battalion puts in a good many miles of marching in a year in conditions which are rarely ideal and very often acutely miserable. It is here that the pipes have rendered such conspicuous service as the marching instrument par excellence; and the cult of the bagpipe has spread to units and nationalities which, before the war, would never have thought it possible that the company piper would become one of their most cherished institutions.
That Irish regiments should again adopt the national instrument that had played their ancestors on to the battlefields of France in 1286 is so natural as to need no comment; but when we find English and Australian units, battalions of the United States army, and ships of His Majesty’s Navy, to say nothing of field ambulances and transport units, adopting the bagpipe, no further evidence is required to substantiate its claim to be a highly important feature of modern military organisation.
It is indeed to a recognition, in the very early days of the war, of the great value of the pipes in “exciting alacrity and cheerfulness in the soldier” that is due the fact that so many units have deliberately tried to keep their pipers out of harm’s way, and have only allowed them, under protest, to accompany their companies into action, and then only in limited numbers. Commanding officers have appreciated that, as a stimulus to tired men, to men marching weary miles to take up a position, to men returning worn out from a spell of duty, the music of the pipes has proved invaluable.
Instances of this stimulating effect are too numerous to mention, but a few, taken from contemporary accounts of the war, may be regarded as typical.
The following incident in the retirement from Mons has frequently occurred elsewhere. “I shall never forget how one General saw a batch of Gordons and K.O.S.B. stragglers trudging listlessly along the road. He halted them. Some more came up, until there was about a company in all, with one piper. He made them form fours, put the piper at the head of them, ‘Now lads, follow the piper and remember Scotland,’ and they all started off as pleased as Punch, with the tired piper playing like a hero.”6
The Rev. Dr. Maclean, C.M.G., describes a case of the effect of the pipes on tired men:
“It was a sweltering hot day, and the road was deep with dust. The long snaky khaki column came marching steadily down the hill, silent under the weight of their accoutrements with the grinding heat of an April sun.... As the Scots came by he gave the sign to the piper. He stepped forward and struck up one of the great battle marches of our race. The scene that followed baffled description. A roar of cheering burst from the ranks.”
Another instance,7 by one who was himself in the ranks, may be regarded as typical. The regiment concerned was the Glasgow Highlanders, but the description is applicable to every Scottish regiment in the Army List:
“Kilometre after kilometre we marched, through the hottest hours of the middle day, and our feet and backs ached under the weight of all we carried, our faces were dabbled and streaked with dust and perspiration, and in our mouths was only dust to chew....
“Walking had become a purely mechanical exercise, our limbs controlled, as it seemed, by some power outwith us; our brains were numb and dazed with fatigue and the maddening persisting pain that was our every step. Blindly, dumbly, helplessly we staggered on... in infinite weariness we dragged ourselves to the beginning of the street, and then—
“Then the pipes suddenly set the heavens and the earth dancing to the strains of ‘Highland Laddie,’ the regimental march of the Glasgows. And at the skirl of the pipes, and before the eyes of those critical spectators, every man braced himself, his step assumed as much of jauntiness as he could put into it, and he had a laugh and a jesting answer ready on his lips for every outsider who spoke to him.... It was something more potent than wine that put the boldness into their step, it was the sense of the tradition and honour of their regiment: the feeling that on no account must they present other than a brave front to the world, that the one unpardonable offence would be to let the battalion down.”
Examples could be multiplied indefinitely, but the best tribute to the value of the pipes as a marching instrument and in keeping the men cheery is, after all, the fact that regiment after regiment felt constrained to keep them out of action entirely—whether as pipers pure and simple or in other military capacities.
Statements to this effect have been received from nearly all the regiments whose views have been asked, commanding officers being almost unanimous in their opinion that, only where it is imperatively necessary, should a pipe band be exposed to the chances of annihilation inseparable from modern shell fire.
And in just the same manner as the pipes have helped battalions along the “via dolorosa” into action so they have, time and again, played them back to rest and comparative security. In some cases they had shared in the action itself, in others they waited until their services were required. Many commanding officers and observers have referred to this as one of the most important of their duties. In describing the return of a battalion, or what remained of it, from Longueval, Philip Gibbs writes:
“There was a thick summer haze about, and on the ridges the black vapours of shell bursts.... It was out of this that the Highlanders came marching. They brought the music with them and the pipes of war playing a Scottish love song, ‘I lo’e na a laddie but ane.’ Their kilts were caked with mud, they were very tired, but they held their heads up, and the pipers who had been with them played bravely... and the Scottish love song rang out across the fields.”
An officer of an Argyll battalion, writing of the days of trench fighting, says: “They have done much to hearten us on long marches. They came out of Bethune after Loos and played what was left of us back to billets.” Another, in the Royal Scots, referring to the return of the battalion from Kemmel, says: “I shall never forget the effect on the men; as they struck up they fairly shouted themselves hoarse with delight.”
“Wonderful pipes! The men get tired and would fall out, but the pipes make a unity of them. Invisible tendons and muscles seem to connect the legs of all files, and all move as one, mechanically, rhythmically, certainly. The strong are reduced to the step, the weak are braced up to it. All bear the strain and share the strain. So we go on, and the miracle is in the power of the music.”8
A final quotation—one of a very great number received—reflects the opinion of all ranks:
“I have often seen a company just out of the trenches straggling along the road too weary to think of keeping in formation, let alone in step. On the first sound of the pipes these same men would double up to their place and march along with the best of them.”
The ubiquity of the pipes on the Western front has been remarked by all observers. “The music of the pipes is now as much a part of the great orchestra of this war as the incessant rumbling of distant guns, as the swirl of traffic along the transport lines, as the singing of birds above No Man’s Land.... And where there are pipes there are Scotsmen—Scots everywhere from the sea to St. Quentin, in old French market towns, and in Flemish villages... and in camps behind the fighting line not beyond the reach of long range shells, and up in the trenches where death is very near to them.... As long as history lasts the spirit of France will salute the memory of these kilted boys and of all the Lowland Scots who have gone into the furnace fires of this war to the music of the pipes, and have fallen in heaps upon her fields. A thousand years hence, when the wind blows softly across the ground where they fought, old Scottish tunes will sound faintly in the ears of men who remember the past, and all this country will be haunted with the ghosts of Scotland’s gallant sons.”9
Nor has it been on the Western front alone that the value of the pipes has made itself appreciated. In every other theatre of war as well has “the tune with the tartan of the clan in it” been heard at the head of columns toiling through the dust and heat, or through pitiless rain. In Egypt and Gallipoli and the Holy Land, in Mesopotamia and the Balkans, the pipes have been the prelude to great happenings. “Bundle and Go” in the early dawn of an Eastern day, “Soldier lie down” at night—these have been the preliminaries which led up naturally to “Cabar Feidh” in a hail of machine gun fire, or “Horo mo nighean donn bhoidheach” in the streets of captured Bagdad.
“Many a soldier sadly misses his pipe, which of course may not be lit on a night march; but to me a greater loss is the silence of those other pipes, for the sound of the bagpipes will stir up a thousand memories in a Highland regiment, and nothing helps a column of weary foot soldiers so well as pipe music, backed by the beat of a drum.”10
When the British army advanced into German territory the pipers had an opportunity to play with an abandon that had never been felt before.
“Next day, with the skies still streaming, we made the longest continuous march, some 36 kilometres, and by that effort got well into Germany. The roads improved as we got farther on, but the tramp through the forest of Zitter was long, marshy, and melancholy. Our company was first after the pipers, and had the full benefit of the music all the way. And we wandered inward; inward, with our seeking and haunting Gaelic melodies, into the depths of the hanging, silent wood. It was strange how aloof nature seemed to these melodies. In Scotland, or even in France, all the hills and the woods would have helped the music. But in this German land all were cold toward us, and those endless pine trees seemed to be holding hands with fingers spread before the eyes to show their shame and humiliation. There was a curious sense that the road on which we trod was not our road, and that earth and her fruits on either hand were hostile.
“And how tired the men became, with half of them through the soles of their boots and with racking damp in their shoulders and backs from their rain-sodden packs. But we listened still whilst voluminous waves of melody wandered homeless over German wastes and returned to us,
I heard the pibroch sounding, sounding,
O’er the wide meadows and lands from afar.
or to the stirring strains of the ‘March of the Battle of Harlaw,’ or to the crooning, hoping, sobbing of ‘Lord Lovat’s Lament,’ and so went on from hour to hour through the emptiness of Southern Germany. When we thought we had just about reached our camping ground for the night, we came to a guide post which showed it still to be seven kilometres on. But that was at the top of a long hill, and the road ran gently down through woods the whole way. The colonel sent a message to play ‘Men of Portree.’ The rain had stopped, and an evening sky unveiled a more cheerful light. So, with an easy inconsequent air, we cast off care and tripped away down to the substantial and prosperous bit of Rhineland called Hellenthal, well on our way to Cologne.”11
The interminable marches are over and their goal has been attained; and the instrument which has a tune for every human emotion can now play “The Desperate Battle” in German towns with a safety which has been long unknown. To many a man, however, as he fingers his chanter, the feeling will come, as he thinks of the good men and true who never reached the 11th November, 1918, that the tune that is most appropriate is “Lochaber no more.”
Pipe Tunes
Pipe tunes—as every piper knows—have local associations, associations with particular incidents, particular emotions; and in military piping this is never overlooked. In war everything has changed—everything but the elemental courage and passions of the men who are engaged in it; and, as piob mhor is essentially the instrument on which those elemental passions can be best expressed, it is not uninteresting to observe how individual pipers have resorted to particular tunes, to suit particular occasions. In many, perhaps in most, cases there were traditional or regimental reasons for playing one tune rather than another, and such tunes were often in the highest degree appropriate; but in other cases the individuality of the performer determined the choice.
Of a selection based on tradition the best authenticated instance is that of the Gordon piper who played Cogadh na Sith, “War or peace,” during the Somme fighting. The tune itself, a piobaireachd composed by the great M’Crimmon some 400 years ago, was played by the Gordons at Waterloo and by a Cameron piper, Kenneth M’Kay, at Quatre Bras.
“12About the middle of June a draft of about a hundred and twenty men arrived in camp for the Gordons—the finest draft the commanding officer declared he had ever seen. On the 18th, they were ordered to the front. I found they had a piper with them, and immediately laid hold on him to play the men down to the station. I brought him up to my tent and provided him with a set of pipes which I had reserved for my own particular work.... I found something more interesting than that. His great-grandfather had been a piper in the regiment in the days of the Napoleonic war, and at the Battle of Waterloo he stood within the square and played the ancient Highland challenge-march ‘Cogadh na Sith,’ as the French cuirassiers hurled themselves upon the immovable ranks in vain.
“‘John,’ I said, ‘this is the anniversary of Waterloo, and you will lead the men out to that very tune which your great-grandfather played on that great day.’ I told the colonel, and his eyes gleamed as he said to me, ‘Ah! padre, we’ll do better than that. You will tell the men about it, and I will call them to attention, and your piper will play his tune in memory of the men of Waterloo.’
“And so it was done, and a thrilling incident it was as the men stood rigid and silent in full marching order, and the piper strode proudly along the ranks, sounding the wild, defiant challenge that stirred the regiment a hundred years before.”
Regimental tunes appeal enormously to the men who hear and know them; it was probably as much the sound of “Blue Bonnets over the Border” as the sight of Piper Laidlaw piping along the parapet that made the men, shaken with shell fire and gas, go straight forward; and red hackles have followed “Highland Laddie” in circumstances when another tune might have failed to exert the same extraordinary influence. But, having played his regulation onset, the piper has an opportunity of suiting his own taste and selecting a tune appropriate musically and emotionally, as well as in name, to the occasion.
On many occasions when the choice of a tune has not been restricted by regimental custom or tradition, individual performers have made selections which indicated the remarkable mentality of the British soldier.
At Loos, where Pipers Simpson and M’Donald of the 2nd Black Watch played their company over the top and through the attack, the tune they commenced with was “Happy we’ve been a’ thegither,”—only later changing into the ceremonial onset “Highland Laddie.” To men in a trench who have suffered untold nerve strain waiting for Zero and who happen—as do most men in Highland regiments—to know one tune from another, no more appropriate combination of “onsets” could have been selected.
At Beaumont Hamel, when the 17th H.L.I. took the German trenches and had an opportunity of bombing out the occupants, Pipe Major Gilbert played another popular and very suitable tune, “The muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre,” and greatly encouraged the men in their task. This same tune has done duty on many similar occasions.
It was to “We’ll tak the guid auld way” that the 16th Canadians attacked at Vimy, and many Cameron pipers have played the “Piobaireachd Dhomhnuill Duibh” in similar circumstances.
Another very favourite tune was “The Macgregor’s Gathering” which was played with great effect in the capture of many villages during the Somme fighting.
A curious coincidence was the selection by the pipers of the 1st H.L.I. of “I’ll gang nae mair tae yon toun” as they marched out of Marseilles on 1st November, 1914, on their way to the front. During the first six months they lost seven pipers killed, eight wounded and two taken prisoner, and the band ceased to exist.
“Baile Inneraora,”—otherwise “The Campbells are Coming”—was the tune to which the first Highland regiment of the Expeditionary Force, the 2nd Argylls, landed in France; from that time onward it has immortalised on every front, if that were necessary, the town of which Burns wrote:
“There’s naething here but Highland pride
And Highland scab and hunger.
If Providence has sent me here,
’Twas surely in his anger.”
The Argylls long ago took Burns’ song and treated it with the contempt it deserves when they adopted “Baile Inneraora” as their “onset.” It was played at the taking of Longueval, in the attack at Loos, and at the subsequent rally after that glorious disaster, and in many other actions.
During the fighting on the Somme for the heaps of ruins which had once been a French village, an incident occurred which takes us back to the legend connected with the pibroch “A Cholla, mo run.” Long ages ago, when the Campbells heard they were going to be attacked by Coll Kiteach at Dunivaig, they set an ambush and captured the advance guard. All were hanged except the piper, who was given permission to play a lament over his comrades. The piper at once started the warning, which was heard and understood by his comrades,
“Coll of my love avoid the strait, avoid the strait, avoid the strait,
Coll of my love, go by the Mull, gain the landing place.”
The poor piper was instantly stabbed by the infuriated Campbells.
It is a far cry from those days, when men could converse to each other in pibroch, to 1916; but another tune—not “A Cholla, mo run”—was played by another piper in a French village when his party was cut off. Two officers, a sergeant, and a piper of an Argyll battalion, got separated from the main body, and found themselves unable to get away when the village was again attacked by our men. The small party at once started bombing the enemy from the rear, but the piper, appreciating the unpleasant possibility of their own presence not being recognised, struck up the regimental onset. This alarmed the Germans, who thought they were being attacked from a fresh quarter, and materially contributed to the success of the operation.
Individual Achievements
“Agus bha iad am measg uam fear treuna ’n an luchd-cuideachaidh ’s a’ chogadh.”
To attempt to compile a complete record of the achievements of individual pipers or of the pipe bands of units is an impossible task; it would involve a review of the whole course of the war. A long time must elapse before the histories of battalions are completed, and even then we shall probably never know fully the extent to which their pipers have contributed to the attainment of success.
Throughout the war correspondence has been carried on with individuals who, in spite of their appalling environment, have found time to supply information. They at least have the satisfaction of knowing that to them is largely due the fact that brave acts have been saved from oblivion.
Such a review as follows is but a fragmentary one, based on information obtained from officers, N.C.O.’s and men of the battalions concerned—but almost never from individual pipers. Among these men there appears to have been a conspiracy of silence, and attempts to obtain fuller information as to the reason for the granting of awards or the names of pipers whose identity disappeared under the blue pencil of the Censor have proved in very many instances unavailing.
The omission from these pages of mention of achievements of pipers of many battalions must be regarded as indicating lack of space to record them, or of failure to obtain the desired information.
The original Expeditionary Force landed in France with seven Scottish battalions possessing pipe bands; when the armistice was signed the number of such units exceeded a hundred. Although on mobilisation the number of “full” pipers in a battalion is only six it must be remembered that there are always “acting pipers” serving in the companies who are available—until that source of supply is exhausted—to take the place of casualties; and it is safe to reckon that the 100 battalions have had more than 2500 pipers at various times.
The numbers that served in various units during the campaign varied enormously; in some, which freely utilised their pipers in the front line—in the ranks, as bearers, and as pipers in action—as many as seventy or eighty have been borne on the strength at different times; in others, which kept these men invariably behind the front line, the casualties were negligible and comparatively few were used up.
This difference in method of employment largely explains the variations in the casualty lists and honours of different units; and, in some cases, it has been found impossible to obtain anything like complete information.
8543 Piper James Mackenzie, 1st Scots Guards.
During the desperate fighting about Ypres in October, 1914, Piper Mackenzie greatly distinguished himself bringing up ammunition to the firing line. He was killed while doing so. Awarded a mention in despatches.
8081 Piper Charles Scott Maguire, 2nd Scots Guards.
On the 27th October, 1914, near Ypres, an advanced trench was blown to pieces by shell fire, most of its occupants being killed or wounded. Hearing calls for help, Piper Maguire went forward from the support trench to report. He crawled 15 yards on hands and knees to the wrecked trench and found several men had been buried by the explosion. Although without any protection from enemy fire he dug out a man and found he was dead; he continued his task and got out another, placing him for safety under cover of the dead body. He then crawled back to his trench. The N.C.O. in charge had been killed meantime, and no official report of his conduct was possible. Maguire himself was wounded shortly after, his back being broken; he died of paralysis some seven months later.
11002 Piper J. McMillan, 1st Royal Scots.
Was awarded the D.C.M. for conspicuous gallantry as a battalion scout.
| 10123 | Corpl. | E. Collins, | } | |
| 10754 | Piper | J. Clancy, | } | |
| 10639 | ″ | J. Smart, | } | 1st Royal Scots. |
| 10032 | ″ | P. Mallin, | } |
During the operations on the Salonika front the battalion had to capture Karadzakot Zir. The men had to advance over open country to the attack. These pipers played over three successive charges to the enemy’s position, and the commanding officer considered their gallantry on this occasion was to a large extent instrumental in bringing about the success of the attack. In spite of their exposed position they all got through without being touched.
11065 Piper H. M’Leod, 2nd Royal Scots.
Was repeatedly mentioned in despatches for gallantry in attending wounded under fire, and was recommended for the D.C.M.
1235 Piper W. Sinclair, 5th Royal Scots.
Shortly after the original landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula, a critical retirement took place. Piper Sinclair, on his own initiative, gathered together a handful of stragglers, and, taking up a favourable position, covered successfully the withdrawal of the battalion. He was killed.
Pipe Major John Buchan, 4th Royal Scots.
Just before the attack on Achi Baba on 28th June, 1915, Pipe Major Buchan played along the line as the battalion went over; he was killed.
7271 Pipe Major J. M’Dougall, 8th Royal Scots.
Was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal “for gallant conduct under very trying circumstances” as a stretcher bearer at Festubert in May, 1915.
Corpl. Alexander Forsyth, 9th Royal Scots.
At Arras in April, 1917, this man, who was a highly skilled bomber, volunteered to bomb the Germans out of a position in which they were covered by machine guns. He crawled up and succeeded in his object, but was killed. He was given the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
13283 Pipe Major A. Colgan, 12th Royal Scots.
In the Loos attack the pipe major played the battalion over the top and was wounded. Subsequently, in the great German offensive in 1918, when pipers had to serve in the ranks, he got the Military Medal “for good leadership and courage.”
Pipe Major John Mouat, 13th Royal Scots.
During the final advance in 1918 the pipers were employed as bearers, and suffered heavy casualties. Pipe Major Mouat received a mention in despatches.
Pipe Major Murdoch Macdonald, 13th Royal Scots.
A heavy shell burst among a company and buried a number of men. Pipe Major Macdonald went out alone, under very heavy shell fire and brought in six wounded men unaided.
Pipe Major David Anderson, 15th Royal Scots.
In the opening attack on the Somme front on 1st July, 1916, the battalion was played forward by the pipe major, to the old regimental tune “Dumbarton’s drums.” He was hit shortly after going over the top, but continued playing; he was again wounded after crossing the third line of trenches and fell to the ground. He tried to go on playing while sitting on the ground, but his pipes were shattered by a shell bursting near him. He managed to get up and was at once attacked by a German, but succeeded in knocking him out with his fists, and then continued fighting with a rifle until overcome by his wounds.
Pipe Major Anderson was given the one Croix de Guerre allotted to his Division for the most conspicuous act of bravery. The pipes he was playing on this occasion were of historical interest as they had been taken to the Antarctic by a member of Scott’s expedition, and had been played also in the Arctic expedition of 1907.
Another interesting feature of Anderson’s achievement was that several Germans surrendered to him as he played on the parapet of one of their trenches.
Pipe Major David Campbell, 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Although he had been wounded in the arm on the previous day Pipe Major Campbell played his battalion to the attack on the German position at Hooge on June 16, 1915. He played on right up to the German wire entanglements when, throwing his pipes aside, he caught up the bayonet of a comrade who had just been shot by a German officer and at once attacked the latter. He captured the officer.
9884 Piper Higginson, 1st K.O.S.B.
The initial engagement of the battalion was the landing on Gallipoli. During the first few days the pipers were fighting in the ranks, and the gallant exploit of Piper Higginson is eloquent indication of the fact that they played the part of the fighting man right well. All the officers and N.C.O.’s of his Company having been killed or wounded during the heavy fighting of 26th April, 1915, Piper Higginson rallied the remainder, and organised and led a bayonet charge with such dash and bravery that the Turks were swept back from a line they had captured earlier in the day. Just as success was attained Piper Higginson was mortally wounded, and died some hours later. Had he survived he was to have been recommended for the D.C.M.
| 1315 | Piper Maitland, | } | |
| 8248 | Pipe Major W. Mackenzie, | } | 1st K.O.S.B. |
During most of their stay on the Gallipoli peninsula the pipers had to bring up ammunition, rations, stores, etc., a job which was at all times most trying and often extremely hazardous. For conspicuous bravery in charge of these carrying parties the Pipe Major and Piper Maitland were awarded the Military Medal.
556 Piper A. Erskine, 5th K.O.S.B.
Was mentioned in despatches for gallantry as a stretcher bearer in Gallipoli.
14851 Pipe Major Robert Mackenzie, 6th K.O.S.B.
At the battle of Loos 25th September, 1915, when the battalion went forward to the attack in which it was decimated, the first over the top was the Pipe Major, who started playing at once. He was wounded and fell after a comparatively short distance, but managed to crawl back. His leg had to be amputated, and he died of shock shortly afterwards. Mackenzie was a man of nearly sixty years of age, and had forty-two years’ Army service. He was awarded a mention in despatches. Before the action he had been detailed, on account of his age, to be postman, but insisted on going into action.
15851 Piper Daniel Laidlaw, V.C., 7th K.O.S.B.
Just before the attack on Hill 70 and Loos on 25th September, 1915, the battalion, which was under heavy shell fire, was exposed to a cloud of poison gas. Many of the men succumbed to this gas, and the remainder were shaken by what they were going through. The commanding officer, seeing Laidlaw standing waiting with his pipes for the order to advance, called to him, “Pipe them together, Laidlaw, for God’s sake, pipe them together,” and he immediately climbed out on to the parapet, and marched up and down, regardless of danger, playing “Blue Bonnets over the Border.” The effect on the men was magical; at the same moment the order came to advance, and the officer shouted “Come on, the Borderers, who’ll be the first to reach the German trenches?” The survivors of the company swarmed up and over to the assault following the piper. The men were falling all round him, but Laidlaw continued to advance until he got near the German line, when he was wounded and the officer, who was alongside of him, was killed. As he lay on the ground he tried to go on playing, and then managed to get up and hobble after the battalion.
He was awarded the Victoria Cross “for most conspicuous gallantry,” and the French Croix de Guerre.
The sobriquet “Piper of Loos” was commonly applied to Piper Laidlaw; though, in fairness to two other men, it must be admitted that he only shared that distinction with them.
Pipe Major Douglas Taylor, 7th K.O.S.B.
During the attack on Loos when Piper Laidlaw got the V.C., the other pipers were chiefly employed in bringing in the casualties. There were large numbers of men lying about who had been gassed. Pipe Major Taylor, though himself wounded in the hand, continued bringing in these men for thirty-six hours, until he was himself shot down with a bullet in the heart. He recovered ultimately—one of the surgical miracles of the war.
Pipe Major W. Robertson, 2nd Scottish Rifles.
Was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in the field.
Pipe Major Neil Macleod, 8th Scottish Rifles.
Greatly distinguished himself in the Dardanelles fighting in attending on the wounded. He was killed in the attack on 12th July, 1915.
| 40631 | Corpl. Whitelaw, | } | |
| 17806 | Piper M’Gurk, | } | 9th Scottish Rifles. |
In a daylight raid at Arras in February, 1917, these two men played their companies over, standing on the parapet, and then followed them up to the German position.
Pipe Major J. M’Coll, 10th Scottish Rifles.
Was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry during the Somme fighting.
14631 Piper Alexander Stevenson, 11th Scottish Rifles.
On 20th April, 1917, Piper Stevenson observed a comrade, who had been out on a night patrol, lying wounded in No Man’s Land, and calling for help. He at once went over the parapet in broad daylight and brought him in, although the Germans brought a machine gun to bear on him as soon as he exposed himself. While assisting the medical officer to dress the wounded man he was killed. His name was mentioned in despatches for gallantry. He had previously done excellent work carrying messages in action.
| Piper | Andrew Wishart, | } | |
| 9430 | Piper W. Stuart, | } | 1st Black Watch. |
After the failure of the first attack on Richebourg, 9th May, 1915—the attacking battalions simply melting away under a sheet of lead—a second attack on the position was ordered for midday; the leading battalions on this occasion being the 1st Black Watch and 1st Camerons. The men went over the top with a tremendous dash, and each company was led by its pipers. Two at least actually reached the German trenches and continued playing—9430 W. Stuart, and Andrew Wishart of the Black Watch. They were under very heavy fire, and both got wounded. Wishart fell into a shell hole and lay there for four days before he succeeded in crawling back to our trenches. When he fell there were loud shouts “The piper’s down,” and the men made frantic efforts to get into the enemy’s trenches; but the machine gun fire was too heavy, and they had to withdraw. Piper Stuart was awarded the D.C.M.
Piper George Galloway, 7th Black Watch.
On one occasion Piper Galloway rescued five men who had been buried by a shell explosion. Subsequently, when employed as a runner, he was called on to deliver an important message under very heavy fire. This he accomplished in almost impossible conditions, and was given the Military Medal.
L/Corpl. G. Swan, 7th Black Watch.
Served in the ranks during the Somme fighting. He was killed in action, and was awarded the Military Medal.
1919 Piper Alexander Pratt, 2nd Black Watch.
Pipers throughout the war have been employed in a great variety of ways besides piping. Piper Pratt was reported in Mesopotamian Force Despatches as “one of the bravest and most intelligent bomb sergeants in the regiment; on three occasions he has proved his high capacity for leadership in the attack. He has been twice wounded. His power of training grenadiers and his influence over his men are quite exceptional.” He was promoted in the field to Sergeant and awarded a D.C.M.
941 Piper Peter MacNee, 2nd Black Watch.
Also distinguished himself greatly as a bomber. He won the D.C.M. at Neuve Chapelle. In France he was twice wounded, but went to Mesopotamia with the battalion. In the fighting at Sheikh Saad in January, 1916, he was mortally wounded.
| 1839 | Piper | Alexander Macdonald, | } | |
| 736 | Piper | David Simpson, | } | |
| 365 | Piper | R. Johnstone, | } | 2nd Black Watch. |
| 699 | Piper | David Armit, | } | |
| 187 | Piper | J. Galloway, | } |
In the attack by the 2nd Black Watch at Mauquissart, 25th September, 1915, the pipers took a prominent part, playing their companies up to and through the German first and second lines. After three lines had been captured the order to attack the fourth was given. 736 Piper David Simpson at once dashed forward playing, followed by his company; he was killed just as they reached the objective. His bravery earned him the title, for long after, of “The Piper of Loos.” He was recommended for the Victoria Cross. Further on, 1839 Piper Alexander Macdonald alternately played from one trench to the next and assisted in bombing the enemy out of their dugouts. In the third trench he marched, playing “Macgregor’s Gathering,” down the trench at the head of the bombers, and then climbed on to the parapet and continued playing. He was ultimately wounded and lost his leg. For his gallantry he was given the D.C.M., but did not long survive to enjoy the honour as he died soon after his discharge. At the same time 365 Piper R. Johnstone went on playing until he fell gassed. As pipers fell out wounded others took their places, and the battalion was played continuously into and through the action. It appears to have been a tradition among the pipers of this battalion that they were always to play whenever an opportunity occurred. Pipers David Armit and J. Galloway also played right up to and through the German support trenches.
1198 Pipe Major D. M’Leod, 4th Black Watch.
Piper M’Leod played his company into action at Loos.
During this action the commanding officer was mortally wounded; he was brought in, under intense fire, by Pipe Major—then Corpl. Piper—M’Leod, who received the Military Medal for his gallantry. He subsequently got a bar to the Medal for repeated acts of gallantry during the great advance of 1915.
410 Pipe Major Alexander Low, 4th Black Watch.
Received the Military Medal for devoted attendance to the wounded at Neuve Chapelle.
1568 Piper Alexander Howie, 5th Black Watch.
At Neuve Chapelle Piper Howie greatly distinguished himself in bringing in casualties. He was killed while performing this duty. Mentioned in despatches.
| Piper | R. Pirnie, | } | |
| Piper | A. Forbes, | } | 6th Black Watch. |
| Piper | A. Tainsh, | } | |
| Piper | R. Mapleton, | } |
These men played the battalion in to the attack on High Wood, 14th July, 1916. Though much exposed they escaped unwounded.
Piper Ferguson, 6th Black Watch.
At Laventie this man marched from one end of the line to the other playing “Johnny Cope,” which aroused the enemy, who, expecting an immediate attack, at once started a barrage. No attack was ever intended.
2126 Piper Alasdair M’Donald, 6th Black Watch.
Near Laventie in July, 1916, a small patrol of four men operating in No Man’s Land ran into some Germans, with the result that two of them were badly wounded and could not get back to our lines. Volunteers were asked for, and M’Donald and another man went out. They met a German patrol and dispersed it, but this at once brought hostile machine gun fire on to them. They had to hunt about for a considerable time in high grass full of barbed wire before finding the wounded men, and, in bringing them back, had to make use of part of a German communication trench. Piper M’Donald was mentioned in despatches.
| 290056 | Pipe Major Thomas Macdonald, | } | |
| 292440 | L/Corpl. G. Swan, | } | 7th Black Watch. |
| 200509 | Piper A. Mands, | } | |
| Piper George Galloway, | } |
All these men received the Military Medal for gallantry in carrying despatches during the Somme actions. On several occasions they performed quite invaluable service in this way.
7671 Piper Alexander Henderson, 1st Cameron Highlanders.
On October 22nd, 1914, Piper Henderson went out to an officer of the battalion who was lying wounded in a very exposed position, and applied first field dressings. He then helped this officer back to our position under heavy machine gun fire and then returned to his duty in the ranks. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Sergt. Johnson, 2nd Cameron Highlanders.
Received the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry on the night of 11th March, 1917, when on a reconnoitring patrol on the Struma. He killed the enemy’s sentry before he had time to warn his group, thus enabling the party to account successfully for five out of seven of the enemy. Also for continuous good work as sergeant in charge of regimental scouts.
As scout sergeant he subsequently still further distinguished himself, and by his initiative and daring in incessant patrol work, materially assisted in gaining complete ascendancy over all the ground between our own and the Bulgar trenches. “His display of daring, initiative and courage has been a splendid example to all the men under him.”
56 Pipe Major John Ross, 4th Cameron Highlanders.
Played the battalion to the attack at Festubert on 17th May, 1915, along with the other pipers of the battalion.
17128 Piper J. Scobie, Cameron Highlanders.
Obtained the M.M., D.C.M. for gallantry in action.
9158 Acting Pipe Major J. MacLellan, 1st Seaforth Highlanders.
During the advance in Mesopotamia ammunition happened to run short at a point only 50 yards removed from the Turk trenches. MacLellan at once volunteered to fetch some, and was killed as he was bringing it up.
8391 Pipe Major D. Mathieson, 1st Seaforth Highlanders.
Was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal “for gallant conduct on many occasions in conveying messages under heavy fire, and also for gallantry in attending on the wounded on an exposed part of the line.”
9446 Pipe Major Neil M’Kechnie, 1st Seaforth Highlanders.
During the engagement at Sheikh Saad on 7th January, 1916, the battalion had to advance for a long distance over perfectly flat country under very heavy fire. Casualties among our men were very numerous. The pipe major and Pipers Colin M’Kay and Alex. M’Kay at once started playing “Caber Feidh,” and continued to do so for some time. M’Kechnie and Alex. M’Kay were both wounded.
At Neuve Chapelle M’Kechnie had distinguished himself as a bomber, and was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Russian Order of St. George.
766 Pipe Major Mackenzie, 1st Seaforth Highlanders.
Was mentioned in despatches for gallantry in Palestine.
412 Piper William Barry, 1st Seaforth Highlanders.
Went out into No Man’s Land under heavy machine gun fire to the assistance of a wounded comrade who was lying unable to move, and whose clothing had caught fire. Piper Barry was recommended for the D.C.M.; he was mentioned in despatches.
529 Piper Colin M’Kay, 1st Seaforth Highlanders.
During the advance at Sheikh Saad some of the pipers had to bring up ammunition. The Turkish barrage was generally late and missed the advancing battalion, but came down behind it; this resulted in severe casualties among ammunition parties. Piper M’Kay was specially promoted on the field for gallantry in performing duty as an ammunition carrier.
201307 Piper P. Stewart, 4th Seaforth Highlanders.
A company on the Ypres sector in September, 1917, had to advance a distance of nearly two miles over flooded ground badly cut up by our artillery. The men were very heavily laden with extra ammunition, bombs, etc.; Piper Stewart played them along until he fell and damaged his pipes. When they reached their position volunteers were called for to go out and try to establish communication with the brigade on the left, whose position was not known. Piper Stewart went out and performed this task, but was badly wounded in the arm. He had previously done excellent work in collecting casualties and putting them in an abandoned gun emplacement. He was awarded the Military Medal.
599 Piper Donald M’Kay, 5th Seaforth Highlanders.
Was killed at Beaumont Hamel when carrying despatches. His C.O. said of him, “It was by devotion such as his that victory was bestowed on us that day.”
| 21629 | Piper | D. Fraser, | } | |
| 4661 | Piper | B. Hamilton, | } | 7th Seaforth Highlanders. |
In the attack at Loos, when the battalion was played in by their pipers, most of these men were killed or wounded. At one time the position became very serious and the advance was checked. Pipers Fraser and Hamilton at once got up into the open and started playing “Caber Feidh”; the effect was very marked as their companies dashed forward after them. They were both killed.
8535 Piper D. Davidson, 7th Seaforth Highlanders.
This man, when serving in the ranks, showed such gallantry and initiative that he received both the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal.
8112 Pipe Major Alexander Mackenzie, 8th Seaforth Highlanders.
At Loos, when the battalion was played into action, there were very heavy losses among the pipers. Pipe Major Mackenzie distinguished himself greatly, and was given the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
8119 Pipe Major G. Gordon, 9th Seaforth Highlanders.
Played the battalion into action at Longueval on 14th July, 1916, and was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre.
5745 Piper Charles M’Lellan, 9th Seaforth Highlanders.
At the battle of Loos he was acting as orderly to his captain; as they got over the parapet the officer was hit, and died a few minutes afterwards. Piper M’Lellan then reported himself to another officer who sent him back, under heavy fire, for reinforcements. Having done this several times, he went to look for his captain and brought in his body. He was awarded the Military Medal.
10744 Corporal A. Godsman, 1st Highland Light Infantry.
During the action at Neuve Chapelle he repeatedly brought up ammunition to the firing line under the heaviest fire, until he was wounded. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Russian Order of St. George.
11480 Piper John Brodie, 2nd Highland Light Infantry.
This man was one of the party with the late Col. W. L. Brodie when that officer won the V.C.
240881 Piper William Mackenzie, 6th Highland Light Infantry.
In the action of 12th July, 1915, in which the battalion captured three lines of Turkish trenches in Gallipoli, Piper Mackenzie went into action armed with a revolver and a shovel, displaying great gallantry and doing great execution with both these weapons until he was wounded.
1914 Piper Kenneth MacLennan, 7th Highland Light Infantry.
Was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal “for playing the pipes during the attack (on the Turkish trenches, 12th July, 1915) and advancing with the line after his pipes had been shattered by shrapnel, and heartening the wounded under fire” (London Gazette). After his pipes had been broken he continued to play on his chanter for some time. He then made several journeys across the open to fetch water for the wounded under heavy fire; and also brought up boxes of ammunition.
1901 Piper D. Cameron, 7th Highland Light Infantry.
In the attack on the Turkish trenches on 12th July, 1915, Piper Cameron played his company right up to the captured trenches and was awarded a special mention in Divisional Orders (52nd Division). On this occasion, while playing, he had a revolver hanging from his wrist, and on reaching the trenches started using it with good effect.
Piper Donald Macfarlane, 7th Highland Light Infantry.
In the same action in Gallipoli on 12th July, 1915, Piper Macfarlane played his company through a bayonet charge and continued doing so until a shell burst shattered his pipe drones. He then devoted himself to giving water to the wounded.
Corpl. Piper Allan M’Nicol, 12th Highland Light Infantry.
During the fighting at Loos and Hill 70 Corpl. M’Nicol was employed carrying an artillery observation flag, and signalling successive positions to our guns as they were captured. For his gallantry in action he was awarded the Military Medal.
15006 Pipe Major William M’Comb, 16th Highland Light Infantry.
On 14th February, 1916, the Pipe Major, though stunned and sick from a blow by a branch of a tree which had been hit by a shell, went forward and dug out several men who had been buried. There was heavy shell fire at the time. He was given the Military Medal.
12095 Piper (Pipe Major) Thomas Richardson, 16th Highland Light Infantry.
Was awarded the Military Medal for gallant conduct at Roupy in the night of 2nd April, 1917, when the company in support was heavily shelled and casualties were heavy. “Pipe Major Richardson organised carrying parties and showed an utter disregard of danger under the continuous fire of heavy guns.”
Pipe Major B. M’Donald, Highland Light Infantry.
An ammunition dump having caught fire he went in under heavy machine gun and shell fire and succeeded in dragging out boxes of bombs and throwing them into a shell crater full of water. By this means he stopped the conflagration. At the time he had just been given a commission, and he received for this action the Military Cross.
16094 Pipe Major Young Gilbert, 17th Highland Light Infantry.
On the 1st July, 1916, the battalion crawled up to within 100 yards of the Leipzig redoubt and rushed the latter when the barrage lifted, and held on. The position was a very perilous one, and the C.O. called on the Pipe Major to play to the men. This he at once did and continued doing so, with the most stimulating effect on the battalion. For this action he was awarded the Military Medal.
5495 Piper James Ritchie, 2nd Gordon Highlanders.
On the 14th July, 1916, the battalion had to attempt the capture of the road from High Wood to Longueval. Advancing beyond the first objective they advanced further and tried to dig in, but came under deadly fire from flank and rear. Of the two leading platoons only one wounded officer and five men ever got back. Piper Ritchie volunteered to carry a message to regimental headquarters and bring up reinforcements. He did this twice. He was awarded the Military Medal.
6349 Pipe Major Charles Anderson, 2nd Gordon Highlanders.
Was awarded the Military Medal. His C.O. writes: “Has done splendid work throughout; his cheerfulness and gallantry have been at all times most marked, and he was a splendid example to all until he was severely wounded at Hulluch on 25th September, 1915.”
6863 Piper R. Stewart, 2nd Gordon Highlanders.
From the commencement of the war Piper Stewart’s gallantry was repeatedly brought to notice and especially during the fighting in October and November, 1914, and at Ypres. He was specially promoted to Sergeant and awarded the D.C.M. and the Russian Order of St. George for bringing up ammunition under particularly trying circumstances at Ypres. He was killed at Loos.
Pipe Major (Sergt. Major) Angus Maclean, 2nd Gordon Highlanders.
Rejoined his old battalion on the outbreak of war and was transferred from the pipes to a company as sergeant major. He was awarded the Military Medal for “conspicuous courage and ability in organising work under very dangerous conditions.”
The 2nd Gordon Highlanders in Italy.
In the summer of 1918 the pipers, during the offensive, were attached for duty to the 23rd Field Ambulance. All the wounded had to be carried across a deep and very rapid burn, which was difficult to get across for a single man. These pipers, however, with four men to a stretcher and four more to steady them, and without their kilts and hose, succeeded in getting large numbers of casualties over. They stood in the water for many hours. Subsequently they went out to look for wounded and brought in many more. “But for the work of the pipers and drummers it would have been impossible to evacuate the wounded that night.”
Piper George Paterson, 4th Gordon Highlanders.
In the fighting outside Cambrai in November, 1917, Piper Paterson played the battalion into action and charged in three successive waves; he also played it into Cantanig under heavy fire. Here he was wounded. He was awarded the Military Medal.
Piper William Webster, 4th Gordon Highlanders.
In the face of heavy fire during the retirement in March, 1918, repeatedly brought up ammunition to men in the front line. Was awarded the Military Medal.
| Piper | P. Bowie, | } | |
| Piper | P. Paterson, | } | 4th Gordon Highlanders. |
| Piper | R. Prentice, | } | |
| Piper | G. Davidson, | } |
In the Ypres fighting on 31st July, 1917, Piper Bowie rallied the men at a time when things were looking very bad. He was awarded the Military Medal. At the Marne, too, he and Pipers P. Paterson, R. Prentice, and G. Davidson played their companies into action “and the example set by them roused the troops to further efforts to force the enemy from a difficult position and enabled them to gain a great victory.”
1985 Piper Charles Thomson, 5th Gordon Highlanders.
At Festubert Piper Thomson showed great courage as an observer, and repeatedly crossed a heavily shelled zone, which was also under fire by snipers, carrying messages to battalion headquarters.
Piper H. Lunam, 5th Gordon Highlanders.
In the action at High Wood on 18th July, 1916, Piper Lunam “very heroically played his company into action in face of heavy machine gun fire and a heavy enemy barrage. He got no official recognition, but the thanks and respect of his comrades who followed him.”
10115 Pipe Major J. Howarth, 6th Gordon Highlanders.
During the fighting at Loos Pipe Major Howarth was acting as orderly to the commanding officer, and, in the course of the advance, was wounded in the feet. A shell had burst and knocked over a dozen of our men and he at once went off to give first aid. On the way he saw Captain —— of the 2nd Gordons lying wounded. As, on account of his own wound, he was unable to carry the wounded officer in, he took off his own puttees, wound them round his knees as a protection, took Captain —— on his back and crawled back on hands and knees to our own line.
Pipe Major Howarth had already received the D.C.M. for his gallantry in tending the wounded at Neuve Chapelle. For his action on this occasion he was awarded a bar to the medal.
10700 Piper W. Bannerman, 6th Gordon Highlanders.
In the fighting at Givenchy on 2nd June, 1915, some of the pipers were employed in the ranks. Piper Bannerman was mentioned in despatches for great gallantry in leading a bayonet charge.
Piper (Sergt.) Peter Dean, 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
When serving in the ranks as a machine gun sergeant he worked his gun alone in an exposed position when the rest of the gun team had all been killed or wounded. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
3162 Piper William Carlyle, 6th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
After a bayonet charge at Festubert on 16th June, 1915, the battalion was lying on the ground under heavy fire. Near the enemy’s line was a wounded man. Piper Carlyle crept out on hands and knees to try and bring him in; just as he reached the man and had started to lift him, he was killed. Piper Carlyle was mentioned in despatches.
Piper John Walls, 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Was awarded the Military Medal for devotion to duty as battalion runner through the barrages on 23/24th July, 1915.
Pipe Major J. Wilson, 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
On the 8th April, 1916, a German raiding party of considerable strength entered our trenches in the Labyrinth after the explosion of several mines which inflicted heavy casualties. Pipe Major Wilson at once organised a counter attack and drove out the enemy. He received a Divisional certificate of gallant conduct.
266 Piper George Shearer, 9th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
When employed as a bearer on 24th May, 1915, brought in a wounded man out of No Man’s Land under particularly difficult circumstances, and was awarded the D.C.M.
4627 Pipe Major Thomas Aitken, 10th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
During the fighting at Longueval in July, 1916, although a man of sixty years of age, Pipe Major Aitken, at his own request, acted as orderly to the commanding officer for the whole day; he was ultimately wounded. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal “for conspicuous gallantry on this and many other occasions.”
| 6191 | Piper | J. Dall, | } | |
| 2616 | Piper | D. Wilson, | } | 10th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. |
When the battalion attacked Longueval it was met by heavy machine gun fire, which caused very severe casualties. Part of the enemy wire had been left uncut by our bombardment, and this caused momentary confusion in the ranks, as it was very dark. The advance was held up by some ruined dwellings in the streets of the village which had been turned into machine gun nests. Pipers Dall and Wilson at once started playing, and in spite of the noise of shell fire all round them, they succeeded in rallying the men, and in leading an attack which proved to be irresistible. Piper Dall was wounded. Piper Wilson was awarded a mention in despatches.
569 Piper G. Gamack, 10th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Received the Military Medal for great gallantry in evacuating casualties during the storming of the St. Quentin Canal, Sept., 1918.
Pipe Major Donald Macfarlane, 11th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
In the action of Loos the Pipe Major was employed as a despatch runner carrying messages back from Hill 70. He continued doing this though severely wounded in the arm. He was recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
| Piper | Charles Hoey, | } | |
| Piper | J. Barnett, | } | 11th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. |
| Piper | T. Wallace, | } |
In the attack at Loos these men all played their companies into action. Piper Barnett was killed while doing so.
Piper Charles Cameron, 11th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
When the battalion attacked Hill 70 on 25th September, 1915, the pipers led their companies and suffered heavy casualties. The 15th Division hung on to the slope of the hill until next day, but ultimately had to fall back, being heavily counter-attacked. The men of different units got mixed up in the hand to hand fighting which ensued, and it was necessary to rally them in their own units. Piper Cameron stood under heavy fire playing, and rallied the men of the 11th. His bravery resulted in his being known in the division as “The Piper of Loos.”
598 Corpl. Piper R. Stevenson, 12th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Many of the pipers of this battalion were employed as scouts, and Corpl. Stevenson rendered particularly good service in this capacity, especially in August, 1918, when, in spite of heavy enemy fire, he went forward and carried out a successful reconnaissance of the wire on the enemy’s trenches. For this he got the Military Medal.
139 Corpl. Piper H. G. Latham, 1st London Scottish.
On account of heavy losses at Messines the pipers of this battalion during the early part of the war were employed in the ranks. Corpl. Latham was a crack shot and had got into the final stage of the King’s Hundred at the Bisley Camp in 1914. He was accordingly employed as a sniper with much success. He took a prominent part in the bayonet attack at Messines. He was killed at Zillebeke 16th November, 1914. Was awarded a mention in despatches.
Piper Sydney Wilson, Liverpool Scottish.
This man served in the ranks. He was awarded the certificate for gallantry on three separate occasions.
| 290 | Pipe Major John Wilson, | } | 1st Tyneside Scottish. |
| 1525 | Piper George Taylor, | } |
Both these men received the Military Medal for bravery in playing their battalion into action at La Boiselle on 1st July, 1916. The whole of the pipers of this and the 2nd Battalion took part in this, one of the most spectacular attacks on the Somme; and their behaviour was an inspiration to the men. They were exposed to very heavy fire and to every sort of obstacle on the ground, but went on playing after ten pipers had been killed and five wounded. 1525 Piper James Phillips of the 2nd Battalion, after having his pipes shattered, started bombing the German trenches. He was mentioned in despatches.
Sergt. John Macdonald, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
At Hooge on 8th May, 1915, after a front trench had been obliterated by shell fire, Sergt. Macdonald dug out two wounded men who had been buried, and carried one on his back and assisted the other to a place of safety under very heavy shell and rifle fire. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. In Sept., 1916, he died of wounds.
24011 Lance Corpl. J. Dyce, 13th Royal Highlanders of Canada.
During the Ypres fighting in April, 1915, Corporal Dyce was employed as a despatch runner and had to cross ground heavily bombarded by the enemy. While doing so he was shot through the chest, and became unconscious; on coming to, knowing the importance of the despatch he was carrying, he started crawling in to deliver it at battalion headquarters, collapsing when he arrived there. He was mentioned in despatches.
29327 Pipe Major James Groat, 16th Canadian Scottish.
In the attack on the Vimy Ridge Pipe Major Groat and the pipers of the battalion played them to the attack, Groat accompanying the commanding officer. They had to advance over a mile under terrific fire. On this occasion he received the Military Medal.
Subsequently, in the attack on Hill 70 on 15th August, 1918, he again led the battalion and was awarded a bar to the Medal; and on 2nd September, 1918, at Arras, he got the Distinguished Conduct Medal for a similar action. He had played the battalion through five successful attacks when he was finally wounded.
28930 Piper James Richardson, V.C., 16th Canadian Scottish.
At Festubert in May, 1915, he showed the greatest gallantry in carrying despatches, and also saved a wounded comrade’s life. In the attack on the Regina trench on 8th October, 1916, he played his company to the attack. When they got near the enemy’s position very heavy wire entanglements were encountered, which took a considerable time to cut through; while this was being carried out Piper Richardson marched up and down outside the wire playing, while the men were falling all round him. When the wire had been cut he continued at the head of his company, and played the “Reel of Tulloch” on the German parapet, followed by the “Deil in the Kitchen” as the battalion started bombing the dugouts. At this moment the Company Sergeant Major was dangerously wounded and Richardson volunteered to take him out. He successfully accomplished this and then said he must go back to fetch his pipes which he had left behind in the captured trench. He never returned and must have been killed. The Commanding Officer13 writes of him: “I really think his V.C. performance was one of the great deeds of the war. The conditions were those of indescribable peril and terror. The lad’s whole soul was bound up in the glory of piping, and he was only taken into action after imploring his colonel with tears in his eyes. Altogether a most wonderful example of high souled courage and enthusiasm.”
A year after Piper Richardson’s death he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
| 28557 | Piper | Alexander M’Gillivray, | } | |
| 29048 | Piper | Allan Cameron M’Nab, | } | |
| 429603 | Piper | George Paul, | } | |
| 466703 | Piper | John M’Allister, | } | |
| 603174 | Piper | Gordon Cruickshank, | } | 16th Canadian Scottish. |
| 467573 | Piper | Alexander Robertson, | } | |
| 737176 | Piper | John M’Lean, | } | |
| 633179 | Piper | Archibald M’Dowell. | } |
The whole of these men received the Military Medal for playing their companies into action on different occasions. No man was ever recommended for reward unless he had played into action on three different occasions, and every man had to volunteer for the duty. As a matter of fact so keen was the competition that lots had to be drawn to decide who should play.
429603 Piper George Paul, 16th Canadian Scottish.
After winning the Military Medal for his gallantry in playing his company to the attack on Hill 70 on 15th August, 1918, Piper Paul went into action at Amiens playing on top of the tank “Dominion.” While doing so he was killed. His action on this occasion roused the wildest enthusiasm among his comrades and contributed greatly to the success of the operation.
59224 Corpl. William Currie, 21st Canadians.
On several occasions Corpl. Currie showed extraordinary gallantry in bringing in wounded men from positions in which any attempt at rescue appeared hopeless, on account of the heavy fire brought to bear on any one trying to approach. The last man rescued by Corpl. Currie had been shot by a sniper and was lying in a trench only a foot deep. Currie succeeded in getting him away although he was badly wounded in the process. He was several times complimented officially and was finally specially promoted and awarded the Military Medal. He subsequently got a Commission and won the Military Cross for gallantry.
60115 Piper Hugh Mackenzie, 21st Canadians.
At Hill 70 volunteers were called for to bring in a man who was lying wounded in No Man’s Land. Mackenzie was one of three who volunteered to get him; two of these men were killed. Mackenzie was given the Military Medal.
| Piper | W. Brand, | } | 25th Canadians. |
| Piper | Walter Telfer, | } |
In the attack on the Vimy Ridge 9th April, 1917, these two pipers played their companies into action. Telfer was so badly wounded that his leg had subsequently to be amputated, but continued playing, until he fell. Both of them were awarded the Military Medal.
1246 Piper John Macdonald, 1st Canadian Machine Gun Corps.
During an action the attack was held up and most of the teams of the machine guns were killed. Piper Macdonald succeeded in pushing forward to the objective with a gun and held on until dark. He was the last to leave, carrying the gun on his shoulders. For this he was promoted Quartermaster Sergeant, and was awarded the Military Medal.
| Pipe Major Alexander Grieve, | } | |
| Piper J. Waterhouse, | } | South African Scottish. |
| Piper A. Gray, | } |
When the Germans advanced on the Cambrai front in March, 1918, the pipers were frequently called upon to serve in the ranks in various capacities. At Houdincourt they were suddenly required to reinforce a position and piled their pipes on the ground. A shell burst destroyed the whole of the pipes. For gallantry when acting as despatch runners Pipe Major Grieve got the D.C.M. and Pipers Waterhouse and Gray the Military Medal.
Pipe Major J. Robertson, 2nd Auckland Regiment.
The pipers served in the ranks. Pipe Major Robertson received the D.C.M. for conspicuous gallantry at Bapaume.
| Piper | A. Aitken, | } | 42nd Australians. |
| Piper | R. Gillespie, | } |
These men were employed as scouts and both received the Military Medal for valuable observation work prior to the action at Messines in June, 1917.
Foreigners and the Pipes
Brought in contact as Scottish troops have been with those of our Allies it is not surprising that military pipers have attracted the attention of observers and writers who, before the war, knew nothing of their existence. From the early days of the war the pipes, the tartan and the kilt aroused the liveliest interest in France; and perhaps the sincerest tribute to them is the fact that, in their caricatures of the nations, the Germans usually depicted the British soldier as a particularly unattractive Highlander.
At first the French writers were mildly sarcastic about the players of the “cornemuse,” and regarded them as an amiable weakness of the comrades of the “auld alliance”; but gradually they discovered that pipes and tartan were the outward and visible signs of a spirit which won their whole-hearted admiration, and then their attitude changed.
Describing an attack by the 51st Division a French observer wrote:
“Resolutely they crossed what seemed to be impossible ground... they charged to the shrill sounds of the bagpipes... they charged like heroes of Walter Scott—leurs bonnets à rubans et leur jupes de danseuses.”
Though the Breton bignon, the cornemuse, the German dudelsackpfeife are no longer—if they ever were—instruments of war, the instinctive admiration for the pipes remains in the most unexpected quarters; and in France, Flanders, Italy, the Balkans, and even the occupied portions of Germany, “piob mhor” has aroused race memories long dormant. One effect of this is the demand which has recently arisen in Italy for pipes from this country; another is the fact that the French Government have added a painting of a piper by a French artist to the official collection of war pictures.
American observers were often very ignorant of the mysteries of the bagpipe. A writer in the Boston Evening Transcript, after eulogising the piper as a military institution, informs his readers that in the hands of a really skilled performer the strains of the pipes can be heard for a distance of six miles against the wind or ten miles if the conditions are favourable. The writer may have been of M’Crimmon descent, but his enthusiasm exceeded his powers of observation.
One thing is quite certain, viz., whatever their inmost feelings regarding the musical qualities of the pipes, foreigners generally appreciate their military value in war and share the opinion of the court-martial in 1746 that they must be regarded as an “instrument of war.”
The Germans certainly were not slow in forming an estimate of the military value of the piper. From a very early stage in the war they learned to associate the instrument with a type of troops for whose mentality, as exhibited in the attack, they had more respect than sympathy, and the piper at once became a marked man whenever he went over the top. The casualties among pipers while playing would of themselves suggest that this was the case; but the statements of officer prisoners show that orders were given to pick off pipers for precisely the same reason as officers commanding platoons or companies.
The Pipes in Captivity
Even pipers fall into the hands of the enemy occasionally, but they were never allowed to take their instruments with them into captivity. Gradually, as “comforts,” pipes were sent out to individual officers and men; and the following letter from an officer of the Gordon Highlanders who was at Friedberg Camp, indicates how popular pipe music became among his fellow-prisoners of the Allied armies.
“Friedberg, 11/1/1917.
Though only a young player I play here every day and do not find people too hostile to me. The Russians, French and even the Germans greet me with great interest and seem to find pleasure in listening to me—though as I said I am no great player; the most unsympathetic are always to be found among the ranks of the “Sassenach.” I learnt to play in 1911, on joining my Regiment, under George MacLennan, who was Pipe-Major at that time. While on leave in Edinburgh I used to have lessons with his father—Jno. MacLennan. Up till now I have only attempted “The Glen is mine” and “Struan Robertson” in Piobaireachd, but having been thoroughly taught by the MacLennans I naturally follow their way of thinking. Yesterday I played to a Russian who is a very good player of the piano. He was delighted with the Pipes and I could not play too many tunes for him. Strathspeys and Reels are greatly appreciated by all our Russian friends. Last St. Andrew’s Day we organized an Exhibition of dancing which was a complete success. As the Scottish Colony here is so small we asked the Russians to come and help us. This they did right well with dances and songs, the music being provided, in both cases, by “Balalaika,” or Russian national instrument. For our part we danced two foursome Reels (dancing two different sets of steps), a Sword Dance and a Highland Schottische. In the latter dance we each took a Russian as a partner, they having been trained up for the event. We sang “Bonnie Dundee,” “Lassies of Scotland,” “MacPherson,” and finished up with “Auld Lang Syne.” For the Reels my Russian friend provided the music on the piano. Our costume was of course improvised. Kilt, shoes and hose we had, we wore white shirts with lace cuffs, a strip of tartan fastened with a brooch at the shoulder to do duty as a plaid and a black velvet band with a lace ruffle, falling down in front, round our necks. Our sporrans, with the exception of one which was made out of a local rabbit, all came from home. I had several pretty compliments paid to me by the Russians and French, both on our costume and dancing. Five of us took part altogether. I wonder if it would be too much to ask you to send me instructions for dancing the “Lochaber Broadswords” and the “Seann Triubhas,” in case we have the misfortune to pass another St. Andrew’s Day here in Germany. If we do we shall give another Exhibition and I would like to be able to vary it. I only know 12 Strathspey steps and 8 Reel steps. Since I have been a prisoner I have taught over 30 people to dance the Reel—including two Frenchmen and one Russian, and at present I have five pupils on the chanter. We are 16 Scots here, so can you say we are losing our national distinctions? I have only told you this because I thought it would interest you.”
In Holland, in the internment camps, an organised pipe band was instituted by the writer of the above letter, and consisted of thirteen pipers of whom two were pipe majors.