P/M Gordon Walker has sent this: ‘The picture [above] shows D/M Ronnie Hughes and P/M Eddie Frame at Edinburgh Castle. Eddie was P/M of the Royal Highland Fusiliers before P/M Gavin Stoddart. Eddie passed away last week and his funeral is on Monday, November 30th, at Holytown Crematorium, Lanarkshire.’
Don’t forget the Gordon McCready recital in the Hole in the Wa’ pub in Dumfries tomorrow night (Tues, Nov 24). Support from local pipers; starts 7.30pm.
Blue MacMurchie has sent on this postcard of two Army pipers. The Pipe Major (on the right) is, we believe, Rob Roy of the Black Watch. We can’t identify the piper on the left. Any information gratefully received. I believe the pic must date from pre-WW2.
Regarding Pipe Majors who won both the Clasp competition at Inverness and a World Pipe Band Championship, Nicholas Taitz, South Africa, asks if RG Hardie won both these coveted awards. No he did not Nicholas but I suppose, if these things are important, that we should mention that he did win the Oban equivalent of the Clasp, the Open Piobaireachd and of course five consecutive Worlds pipe band titles. In his competing day pipers from Glasgow and the west coast seldom travelled to Inverness to play. It was often difficult to get time off work and expensive too. Oban and Cowal were the two big events for them. I have a recoding somewhere of Hardie playing and will include it when I complete his ‘Famous Pipers’ column.
Ken Rogers, Calgary, has sent this re the John MacFadyen recording: ‘After hearing John MacFadyen play an open fosgailte crunluath with a long theme note following, it made up my mind to play it in All the Old Men but Rory. I would have loved to hear this piper play. It would have been a treat. Keep it coming! What an inspiration.’
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