The third batch of pictures today from Ronan Maguire of St Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band, Dublin. There has been a considerable response to the earlier articles publicising Ronan’s work. Yves Tyson in Brittany has pointed out: ‘About Glen’s pictures, it is of Sandy Glen (son of David) and grandson of Alexander Glen. The young lad checking the pipes is not David (Sandy’s brother) but a young apprentice (unknown).’
Thank you very much for that correction Yves. Anyone who has downloaded that picture should adjust the caption accordingly. Here is the picture again:
Patrick Molard adds: ‘Alexander Glen senior was born in 1801 and died in 1872; his son David Glen lived from 1853 till 1916 and he had two sons, Alexander Glen junior (1877-1951) and David Glen junior (1883- 1958).
‘I think there is a mistake in the date of the picture published in Piping Press. Probably the date is not 1880 but around 1930. So the man with the cap is Alexander Glen junior [Sandy], probably aged 53 at the time, and the boy blowing the pipes is not a David Glen but an apprentice. It is true that the Glen history is quite complicated with a lot of children bearing the same names as their fathers!’
The first picture today is of P/M John MacDougall Gillies. Ronan has firstly cleaned and enhanced it and then colourised it. Move the slider to see the difference:
Download your copy of the coloured image here:
John MacDougall Gillies was a native of Glendaruel in Argyll. His job as a house painter took him to Aberdeen and then Glasgow. A pupil of Sandy Cameron, he is considered one of the great piobaireachd tradition bearers linking the 19th to the 20th century.
He won all the major solo prizes and was the first piper to win both the World Pipe Band Championship and the Clasp at the Northern Meeting, a feat since emulated by P/M William Livingstone and P/M Stuart Liddell.
Gillies was manager of Peter Henderson’s shop in Glasgow and would conduct classes there on a Saturday. His outstanding pupil was P/M Robert Reid.
Canadian pipers who knew John Wilson, Toronto and Edinburgh, will be pleased with Ronan’s work on these pictures:
Download your copy of the coloured image here:
And the same man in No 1 uniform before and after:
Download your copy of this coloured image here:
Finally, a cleaned up shot of P/M Wilson at an unknown games in Canada:
We don’t have a lot on the great P/M Wilson and would be grateful for any information on these pictures of him, or personal memories from our Canadian readers.
Thanks once more to Ronan for his superb work. We have a few more pictures still to come so stay tuned to PP.
J have a set of 1918 Henderson’s that from my grandfathers (Duncan McCaskill Sr.) biography his dad purchased them from John McDougall Gillies in 1923 for 24 pounds 10 shillings. I now play these pipes which were handed down to me from my Uncle Duncan McCaskill Jr. still going strong.
When ‘Jock’ Wilson came to the Syracuse, N.Y. Highland Games, he was always a crowd pleaser, a gentleman, and was approachable to the games attendees. As a teenager piper he was my hero and represented the high mark in piping I always was aiming for. He made the games a year’s event for many of us! Dick Blair, Washington, D.C.
John MacDougall Gillies was Pipe Major of the 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders around 1885; could someone tell me when (year from-to)?
Thanks, Aad