Piping historian Jeannie Campbell has sent this following the recent mention of two famous Scottish Pipers’ Association trophies…..
On 6th November 1920 the Oban Times announced that the Clan Macrae Society had presented a trophy (above left) in memory of the late Pipe Major Farquhar MacRae to the Scottish Pipers’ Association.
The SPA were to manage competitions in connection with the trophy. They also received two other trophies formerly used by the Scottish Pipers’ and Dancers Association, the Chisholm Cup and the Cameron Cup. All three trophies are still in use today.
Ten years later, in November 1930, the same newspaper had an article about the John MacDougall Gillies Trophy. It had been presented to the SPA by the Glasgow Highland Club. It was described as a bronze statuette of the late P/M playing the pipes (above right), sculptor Archibald Dawson.
Farquhar MacRae was born on 23rd April 1859 in Portree, Skye, but later moved with his parents to Glasgow. He was taught by Alexander (Sandy) Cameron. Farquhar lived in Napiershall St, just off Great Western Road in the west end of the city and worked as a commercial traveller and later as an insurance agent.
He won the Gold Medal at the Argyllshire Gathering in 1898. He was Pipe Major of the Highland Light Infantry for 25 years. The band won the World Pipe Band Championship in 1913. Later that year he resigned from the TA and formed the City of Glasgow Pipe Band, which in 1924 under his pupil and successor Willie Fergusson, became the Clan MacRae Society Pipe Band. The march Farquhar MacRae was composed for him by Willie.
The fifth of October 1916 in wartime Glasgow was a dark night with lighting restrictions. Farquhar MacRae’s insurance work took him to properties at Port Dundas, a gloomy area of warehouses and whisky bonds on the banks of the Forth and Clyde canal.
In the mirk he slipped and fell into the water and drowned, his cries unheard until it was too late. The funeral pipers were John MacColl and John MacDougall Gillies.
Two weeks later a meeting was held in Glasgow to discuss the best way to commemorate the late Pipe Major. A fund was set up to pay for a trophy and run a competition for young pipers to encourage them to study their music, especially piobaireachd. The initiation of the scheme was left with the Clan Macrae Society.
The Scottish Pipers’ and Dancers’ Association had been formed in 1910 under the name the Scottish Pipers’ and Dancers’ Union, and organised many competitions and other events in Glasgow between 1910 and 1919.
The Scottish Pipers’ Association was formally instituted on the 10th January 1920 with John MacDougall Gillies as the first President. Many of the original members had previously been members of the SPDA.
MacDougall Gillies was born in Aberdeen on 20th May 1855 although his father John Gillies was from Kilmodan, Glendaruel, Argyll. He enlisted in the 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders in 1872. His first tutor was their P/M Fettes. Fettes composed the popular 6/8 Glendaruel Highlanders for the Gillies family.
Gillies had most of his tuition in piobaireachd from Alexander (Alick) Cameron. He worked as a house painter in Aberdeen then became piper to Lord Breadalbane 1886-1888. He then returned to Aberdeen working as a painter until 1890 when he moved to Glasgow where his friend and tutor Alick Cameron was living.
Sharing the same lodgings as Cameron, he continued in his trade until 1903 when he became manager of bagpipe maker Peter Henderson. He remained with the firm until his death in 1925.
At the Argyllshire Gathering he won the Gold Medal in 1884, the March in 1889 and the Open Piobaireachd in 1901. At the Northern Meeting he won the Prize Pipe in 1882, the Former Winners’ Gold Medal in 1885 and the first Clasp in 1896.
He was Pipe Major of the 1st VB HLI from 1891 (re-numbered 5th VB HLI on the Haldane reforms in 1908) and won the first World Pipe Band Championships in 1906, with further wins in 1908, 1910, 1911 and 1912. He was the first President of the Scottish Pipers’ Association.
Gillies had been the Honorary Pipe Major and tutor at the Glasgow Highland Club since 1897 and on 15th December 1925 at a Club meeting gave an ‘unforgettable’ rendering of the Lament for the Only Son.
Two days later he died suddenly from a stroke at his home at 409 Great Western Road, in the west end of Glasgow. His funeral procession was photographed crossing the landmark Kelvin Bridge close to the College of Piping building in Otago Street.
- The author has supplied lists of winners of both trophies and these will be published in due course.
