Busy Anzac Day for Castlemaine Highland Pipe Band

[Downunder Kilt]

That is fabulous Rex. I don't know if the original still exists, but I will be speaking with my main contact later in the week. The band is planning a 60th anniversary gala in November of this year. The original kilts of the band were still being worn up until last year. Finances were then obtained to have the tartan woven by, I believe, Strathmore, in colours as close a possible to the originals, which was woven by the Castlemaine Woollen Mill in 1953. If they do not have the original of the letter I may have to beg a favour off you.

Cheers mate

[CMcG]

It is good to see such gratitude and reverence being shown for those who served. Thanks for sharing, DK.

I did have to look up what Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) stands for, though!

[OC Richard]

Thanks for posting those lovely photos!

Our closest parallel is Memorial Day, which is coming up fairly soon. But it's not quite as big, not as many parades, as your ANZAC Day.

By the way, I found the band's uniforms very interesting in one regard: it's the first time I've ever seen the drummers in a pipe band wear full plaids, the so-called "pipers' plaids"



In the British army, as in every civilian pipe band I've ever seen in which the drummers wore plaids, the drummers wore belted plaids, the so-called "drummers' plaids".

Here's the band's site, where they say that the band got entirely new uniforms in 2011, which involved having "our Chief Macintosh-Castlemaine tartan replicated in Scotland".

http://www.chpb.org.au/

[Blupiper]

Downunder Kilt:

Right you are on "The Wild Colonial Boy." Sometimes the synapses don't line up quite quickly or correctly as they should. Great ANZAC Day photos, though. Thanks.

JMB