Stolen valor or harmless tribute?

[Jock Scot]

Thanks, interesting to know the history.

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Nevertheless, I've seen from other photos that Huntly & District currently contains youngsters who couldn't possibly be ex-army. Thus the OP's question "stolen valour or harmless tribute?" would have to be answered "harmless tribute" in that case.

I am quite sure that the youngsters are made well aware of the history of their band uniform. Yet again, another example of long standing band attire being an exception to the day to day civilian norms.

[Rama4390]

In Australia the High School Pipe band I played in wears the Cameron of Erracht tartan and was formed in 1948. They and the newly formed Army cadet corps secured most of their kilts and sporrans from the 61st Battalion Queensland Cameron Highlanders who were disbanded a couple of years earlier. The band and the cadet corps maintained an affiliation with the Queens own Cameron Highlanders for many years.

I now play in the Warwick Thistle pipe band who wears the Gordon Tartan and was formed in 1923. The Warwick Thistle pipe band had an affiliation with the Gordon Highlanders for many years and still wear the Gordon Tartan and Gordon Highlanders Cap badge.

[OC Richard]

Another example of this sort of thing is the only competition band in the state of West Virginia, the Kanawah Valley Pipes & Drums. (For those outwith the Mountain State, "Kanawha" is generally pronounced "kun-NAW" nowadays.)

Early in the band's history they were taken under the mentorship of an ex-Black Watch Pipe Major, and his influence is seen in the tunes the KVPD play and in the Black Watch kilts they wear.

The dress of such bands here tends to drift from its military roots once the founders, World War Two veterans, have passed.

Cabar Feidh and The Cameron Highlanders of San Diego both switched from their regimental-inspired uniforms to pure civilian dress over the years, including changing from the military tartans they originally wore.

The first band I played in, the Caledonian Pipe Band, was also founded by a WWII veteran, a piper in the Cameron Highlanders who fought in the Western Desert. However the kit his band adopted was entirely civilian (they wore the MacLaren ancient tartan).

These men were part of a huge migration of Scots to California in the immediate post-WWII era. From around 1950 through the 1980s nearly all of our pipe bands, our RSCDS classes, our Highland Dance schools, our Clan societies, and our Strathspey & Reel Society were founded and run by Greatest Generation Scots.

[Jock Scot]

I think that civilian pipe bands have been using assorted military equipment for a long time now and for assorted reasons.Fair enough and I don't think anyone would really quibble with that.

When it comes down to civilian individuals, kilted or otherwise, wearing military attire and insignia outwith the musical, theatrical(re-enactment) parameters, then the ground becomes more, far more, uncertain and yes, even contentious. Yet again, the marked difference between the two trains of civilian thought is striking and is plain for all to see and I think, understand