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[BoldHighlander]

Known to pipers as “D.C. Mather,” this prolific composer was born in London, where he attended the London Caledonian School being taught by John MacKenzie (c. 1831-1904), who was a nephew of John Ban MacKenzie and who won the Prize Pipe at Inverness in 1874 and the Gold Medal there in 1876.

Mather was later taught by Robert Meldrum and John MacDougall Gillies. He served at various times as piper to MacDougall of Lunga, Admiral Campbell of Craignish and the Murrays of Lochcarron.

He died in Montana, having moved to the U.S. by way of Canada in 1901 to prospect for gold.

Thought of usually as a composer, he was a successful competitor and all-rounder as well, competing in Highland dancing and athletic events. He won the Gold Medal at Oban in 1891 and at the Prize Pipe at Inverness in 1899. He continued to compete in North America well into his 60s, and the photo shows him at his mining claim in Montana bedecked in awards in 1936.

Among his most popular compositions are the reels Loch Carron, Willie Cummings Rant and The Man from Glengarry, the strathspey Climbing Dunaquaich and the competition march The Stornoway Highland Gathering.

D.C. Mather in Montana, 1936



http://www.pipetunes.ca/composers.as...&composerID=25

[BoldHighlander]

Gather together all those pipers said to be “the best piper of his day,” and G. S. McLennan would probably be the best.

Those who heard him say his fingers were miraculous. His astonishing technical prowess contributed to an important evolution in Highland pipe technique in the early part of the twentieth century. As a composer, the quality and lasting appeal of his tunes are unequalled. As a person he was modest, generous and well-liked by his peers. But on the strength of his light music playing alone his name would almost certainly be included in lists of the top three pipers ever.

He was born in Edinburgh in 1883 to a leading and long-standing piping family and would die in his prime at age 46 in 1929 with his only book of music just off the presses.....

(read more here)

G. S. McLennan in 1906


At age 10, shortly after performing for Queen Victoria.


At age 25, around the time he won his first Clasp at The Northern Meeting.


Piping at the funeral of renowned fidder J. S. Skinner in 1927.


G. S. McLennan in his latter years.

[BoldHighlander]

An excellent player, and winner of the Gold Medal at Oban in 1893, William Robb is best known as the composer of one of the most popular retreat marches ever penned: "When the Battle is Over," commonly known to pipers as "The Battle's O'er."

He was Pipe Major of the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders from 1887-1891, and of the 1st Argylls from 1891-1894. He was also famous in his day for a 'test march' he made with P/M James MacKay, another A & S Highlander, in 1895 when the two marched 35 miles from Aldershot to Hyde Park Corner playing alternately all the way.

The 'Notices of Pipers' reports that "at the Glasgow Exhibition Games in 1901, he was 3rd in the competition for piobaireachd (MacDougall Gillies and J. MacColl being 1st and 2nd respectively), and 2nd for marches and for strathspeys and reels (J. MacColl being placed 1st)."



William Robb, from an Oban Times photo published around 1930



http://www.pipetunes.ca/composers.as...&composerID=94

[BoldHighlander]

Only a handful of pipers command iconic status in the world of piping without having won the major solo prizes; Donald Shaw Ramsay is one of those pipers.

He was born in Torpichen, Scotland, near Bathgate, and taught by Sandy Forrest, a pupil of John MacDougall-Gillies. He competed as an amateur and as a professional with promising success. But he did not pursue solo competition after the outbreak of the Second World War when he joined the Highland Light Infantry. He passed the pipe-majors’ course at the Castle under Willie Ross and subsequently became Pipe Major of the 10th H.L.I. out of Wick. At age 20, he was the youngest Pipe Major ever appointed in the British Army. He saw action on the continent and proved himself a dynamic leader even at a young age.

(read more here)

Donald Shaw Ramsay, as pictured in The Edcath Collection around 1953.


Ramsay accepts a retirement gift from incoming Edinburgh Police Pipe Major John D. Burgess in 1957.

[BoldHighlander]

There were several prominent piping figures named ‘James Robertson’ during the first half of the 1900s; this one, James (“Robbie”) Robertson of Banff, a Gordon Highlander, was a prolific composer.

Born in Bannffshire on August 23rd, 1886, he began learning pipes at the age of 15 from P/M William Sutherland of Airdrie.

In 1906 he enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders, where he would befriend and come under the influence of the great G. S. McLennan, the greatest Gordon piper of all. G. S. taught Robertson from 1906 to 1913, recommended him for promotion to Lance Corporal in 1912, and oversaw his advancement to Pipe Corporal in 1913.

Just before the Great War, he attended the Military School of Piping at Inverness under John MacDonald of Inverness, where he certainly would have studied piobaireachd, and became the tenth graduate of what would come to be known as the Army School of Piping.

In August 1914 he went with the 1st Battalion of the Gordons to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. The Gordon Highlanders Pipe Music Collection Volume II (1985) describes his trials and adventures during the war years:

On August 13th there were eighteen pipers in the Battalion, most of whom had been pupils of G. S., but by 27th August only two had escaped capture or death. Robbie was amongst the former being taken with the majority of the Battalion at Bertry on 27th August, and he was to spend virtually the whole War as a prisoner. He was sent to Sennelager near Paderborn in September 1914 and was court martialled by the Germans on three occasions during his time as a POW for ‘refusing to carry out work of a military nature, i.e. building Zeppelin sheds and, as a Non-Commissioned Officer, inciting men to refuse similar work.” For years afterwards, Robbie, in his inimitable, amusing style, would recount his experiences as a prisoner in charge of liquidising human excrement prior to its application as a fertiliser on the surrounding German farmland. This typically efficient German approach was frequently sabotaged by the prisoner in charge, which leaves much to the imagination! Indeed, on 17th December, 1915, so difficult had he become to his captors that he was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. Actually, a large part of this period was spent in solitary confinement and the sentence took one year, ten months to complete. He would not give in. Indeed, such had been his example to others that in February 1920 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in recognition of his valuable services as a prisoner of war.”

In April of 1918 he was exchanged as a prisoner and the next year he rejoined the 1st Battalion in Limerick. But it was during his incarceration as a POW in 1915 that he composed his best known tune, “Farewell to the Creeks.” It was about the Creeks of Portknockie, where he used to holiday at his uncle's. Many years later he spoke be still being in possession of the piece of yellow blotting paper onto which he first transcribed the tune.

A champion boxer in the regiment as a young man, he was respected as a pipe major, a piper and a soldier, though the war and his foreign service perhaps robbed him of his due as a competitive player.

After serving in Malta and finally at the depot in Aberdeen, he retired in April, 1927 and worked as a janitor at the Banff Academy until 1953. He also served as a Special Constable in Banff, achieving the rank of Sergeant.

During his latter years he taught and judged at games such as Braemar, Aboyne and Lonach in the northeast of Scotland and was a founding member of the Turriff and District Pipe Band.

He died in 1961 and lies in Banff cemetery.

Pipe Major James Robertson around 1920.


Robertson around 1924



http://www.pipetunes.ca/composers.as...&composerID=48

[BoldHighlander]

The musical marriage between the violin and the bagpipe has been a long and fruitful one, and no fiddler contributed more to the piping repertoire than James Scott Skinner.

He was born in Banchory, a village 20 miles from Aberdeen, on August 5, 1843. His father William had been a full-time gardener and part-time fiddler, but when he lost three fingers on his left hand in a gun accident, he gave up gardening, switched his bowing to the left hand and became a full-time fiddler and dance master. He died when James was only 18 months, so his influence on him was indirect and passed on mostly through his family....

(read more here)

James Scott Skinner's funeral procession in March, 1927,
led by the Aberdeen Police Pipe Band.


James Scott Skinner

[BoldHighlander]

Pipe Major George Stoddart, BEM, was born in 1912 in Leith, near Edinburgh. He enlisted in the 2nd Battalion The Cameron Highlanders at age 14 as a boy piper and remained with them until shortly before the start of World War II, when he transferred to the Royal Scots Fusiliers as Pipe Major. He also served as Pipe Major with the 5th Scottish Parachute Regiment during the War and was also with the Liverpool Scottish for a short time.

After the War, he was posted to Edinburgh as the Lowland Brigade Pipe Major and worked closely with Pipe Major Willie Ross conducting the preliminary course for potential pipe majors. When the Edinburgh Military Tattoo started, he was the Lone Piper for many years and became known as the ‘original lone piper’.

In 1959, he retired from the Army and opened a shop with R.G. Hardie in the Lawnmarket just down from Edinburgh Castle. During this time he founded the Eagle Pipers’ Association which quickly became a well known and respected piping organisation. He was a senior piping adjudicator and was affectionally known as ‘Uncle George’.

He died in Edinburgh in 1990.

Pipe Major George Stoddart in 1956.



http://www.pipetunes.ca/composers.as...composerID=158

[BoldHighlander]

This series of photos appeared in another thread (here) but never appeared in the vintage kilts photo gallery...
a situation that I seek to rectify now.
Enjoy

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders




Group of Gordons: summer camp in Scotland at the outbreak of war


3 Seaforth Highlanders outside their billet, Bedford. 1915