History: Pipe Bands in the East of Scotland Part 4

I am extremely grateful to reader Iain McAlister for forwarding the pictures which illustrate this article and for the information on the bands in the photographs. Of the one above, Iain writes: ‘The picture of the band in uniform is Whitrigg, unknown year, Pipe Major Elkie Clark. Kneeling front right is a very young Robert Martin, later to become P/M of Boghall.’

Iain has sent three other very interesting pictures of West Lothian bands which I’ll include below.

The main thrust of this concluding article, however, is to show the continuing strength of bands in the east of Scotland and their successes at the 2023 majors.

These bands are now grouped within three separate branches of the RSPBA: North of Scotland, Dundee, Perth & Angus (DPA) and Lothian & Borders (L&B). The latter two cover the former territories of the old Stirlingshire and Fife branches.  

The North of Scotland has 40 bands registered with the RSPBA, DPA 36 and L&B 73. The total of 149 represents over 50 per cent of the 252 RSPBA bands in the UK as per the March 2023 AGM.

Seventy-two bands competed at this year’s UK Championships at Lurgan, Northern Ireland. Twenty-four (approximately 33%) were registered in the east. Those which achieved top six places were: G1:  Boghall (1^st); G2: Buchan Peterson (4^th), City of Edinburgh (5^th); Juv.: Dollar Acad. (1^st), G Watson’s College (2^nd), Preston Lodge High School (3^rd), G Heriot’s School (4^th); Novice A: G Watson’s (1^st), Dollar Acad. (3^rd), G Heriot’s (4^th); Novice B: Lochgelly High School (1^st); Dollar Acad.(2^nd), Preston Lodge (3^rd).

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Ninety-seven bands competed at the Europeans in Aberdeen on 24 June.  Fifty five were from the east (approximately 57%). Of these, top six places went to: G1:  Boghall (3^rd); G2: Portlethen (1^st), Buchan Peterson (3^rd), City of Edinburgh (4^th); G3A: Deeside Cal. (2^nd), Denny & Dunipace (4^th), Vale of Atholl (5^th), City of Inverness (6th); G3B: Ross & Cromarty P&D (1^st), Arbroath (2^nd), Methil (4^th); G4A:  Burntisland (1^st); Culter (2^nd); Stirling (4^th), Couper Angus (6^th); G4B: Fraserburgh RBL (2^nd), City of Aberdeen (4^th); Juv.: Dollar Acad. (1^st), G Watson’s (2^nd), Preston Lodge (3^rd), G Heriot’s (4^th); Novice A: G Watson’s (1^st), Dollar Acad. (2^nd), West Lothian Schools (3^rd), High School of Dundee (5^th); Novice B:  Erskine’s Stewart Melville (1^st), Lochgelly High (3^rd); Preston Lodge (4^th) and Dollar Acad. (6^th).

One hundred and four bands competed at the Scottish in Dumbarton on 29 July 2023, 55 of them (approximately 53%) registered in the east. Top six places were: G1: Boghall (4^th); G2: Portlethen (3^rd), City of Edinburgh (6^th); G3A: Vale of Atholl (5^th); G3B: Ross & Cromarty P&D (2^nd), Methil (4^th); Gr4A: Burntisland (1^st), Perth (5^th), Couper Angus (6^th); G4B: City of Discovery (3^rd), City of Aberdeen (5^th); Juv.: Dollar Acad. (1^st), G Watson’s (2^nd), Preston Lodge (3^rd), G Heriot’s (4^th); Novice A: Dollar Acad. (1^st), West Lothian Schools (5^th), Stirling Schools (6^th); Novice B: Lochgelly High (2^nd), Preston Lodge (4^th), Dollar Acad. (5^th), Burntisland (6^th)

Only four Juvenile pipe bands competed at these Major Championships – all four from the east. 

At the Worlds, 17 East of Scotland pipe bands achieved top six placings including, of course, Boghall’s historic win in Grade 1.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the contribution of the Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust (SSPDT) in recent years.  The SSPDT was formed in 2014, its charitable objectives having been widened from the original East Lothian Pipes and Drums Trust which had existed from 2007.  The Trust works in conjunction with education authorities and other groups in Scotland to provide part funding and loans of instruments for the instruction of piping and pipe band drumming in Scottish state schools, all designed to encourage the formation of state school bands.

The SSPDT initiated the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships in 2013. With around a hundred participants annually, many schools or groups of schools have formed bands to compete at the Championships and some have developed further and registered with the RSPBA. 

The SSPDT has undoubtedly enhanced the teaching of piping and drumming in state schools in the East of Scotland as well as in Scotland generally.  The added bonus is that the school players hopefully will continue their playing and feed into bands in the different grades.

In conclusion it seems to me that the foregoing statistics and information provide clear evidence that East of Scotland bands are in a strong and stable condition, and have recovered well from the pandemic. 

It is also pleasing to see that the Lothian & Borders Branch had two Grade 1 bands challenging for top places at all Major Championships this year, and one of them took the World Championships title on 19^th August. 

East of Scotland bands in other grades have similarly been successful, so this part of the country is still maintaining the strong contribution it has made to the pipe band community in Scotland over the years. 

As I say, the Grade 1 Worlds title is now back in the hands of an East Scotland band after a period of some 45 years.  Hopefully the next one will not take so long!!

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