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[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]

James Sutherland was born at Rosskeen, Ross-shire and was taught by Pipe Major James MacDonald. He joined the 1st Seaforth Highlanders as a piper in 1883. He served 21 years with the Regiment. He became Pipe Major in 1893 but was transferred to the 3rd Militia Battalion in 1885.

In 1912 he was made Pipe Major of the 5th Royal Scots (T.F.), Queen's Edinburgh.

In 1915 he was rejected for active service and transferred to the reserves, where he became Pipe Major of the 1st Volunteer Battalion Royal Scots. He was also instructor to the Royal Scottish Pipers' Society from 1910-1914.

Sutherland's overseas posting was Egypt where he composed his great little 2/4 march ‘The Pipers’ Cave,’ named after the Pipers’ room in the Barracks in Cairo. The officers saw the potential of the tune but did not like the title and persuaded him to name it ‘3rd Seaforth’s Farewell to Cairo’. This is the title on page 264 of C. A. Malcolm’s The Piper in Peace and War, but when Sutherland finally published it in the Seaforth's book, he changed it back to the original title.

He was a successful competitor, though not top-rank, having won neither of the Gold Medals, and was also an adept Highland dancer, winning the Sword Dance at Oban in 1911. Whenever possible, he and his good friend Angus MacPherson of Invershin played for each other in the Highalnd dancing. After his active service he taught piping and dancing for a living. In his later years he was seen much as a judge of both piping and dancing events. He counted Willie Ross and Dr. Willie MacPhail among his best friends.




http://www.pipetunes.ca/composers.as...composerID=138

[BoldHighlander]

“With the death of John Wilson last month in Willowdale, Ontario, so passed from the piping scene one of the great characters of this century.”

So wrote Seamus MacNeill in the Piping Times in November, 1979, encapsulating what all who knew John Wilson would most remember most about him.

He was born in Edinburgh in 1906 and began learning the pipes in 1915 from Pipe Major Robert Thomson of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders at Edinburgh Castle. He progressed quickly and in 1917 was sent for tuition to Roderick Campbell, who won the Gold Medal at Oban in 1908 and was one of the leading composers and teachers of the day. They developed a most productive teacher-pupil relationship and were good friends until Campbell died in 1937.

On the eve of Armistice Day in 1918 he was enjoying the usual playful explorations of a 12-year-old when he found and accidentally ignited the detonator of a stray hand grenade and blew off the major parts of the thumb and first two fingers of his left hand. Only short stumps remained extending from the knuckle of his hand. The majority of young pipers might have abandoned the pipes, but no so the young John Wilson, who displayed the perseverance that would be a guiding trait throughout his life. He went back to the practice chanter and relearn his fingering. By 1921 he was winning the major amateur prizes again.

(read more here)

John Wilson in 1927, shortly after winning the Gold Medal at the Argyllshire Gathering.


As a 10-year-old with his first set of pipes in 1916, and his left hand still intact.


John Wilson and Margaret Reid were married on September 23, 1950. George Duncan was the Best Man.


Round the games in Ontario in 1950.