It is with sincere regret that I record the passing of Les Cowell of David Naill Bagpipes. He was 91 and had been ailing for some time.
Les began his piping career in the Boys Brigade in London and as a junior picked up prizes in local contests. I remember him once coming to the College of Piping, digging out old copies of the Piping Times, there to find his name in the lists at a contest in the south east.
By Robert Wallace
After a bagpipe apprenticeship with Henry Starck he joined Ruddell Carte the woodwind specialists. This took Les’s craftsmanship to another level. He became a trained instrument maker. To gauge the level of his skill in handling wood we need to recognise that Ruddell’s had repair contracts with all the leading London orchestras of the day.
Many’s the grateful virtuoso, often in a pre-concert rush, who had his treasured but damaged oboe or clarinet brought to tonal perfection by Les Cowell.
In the early 70s Les decided to branch out on his own making bagpipes. He took the names of family youngsters and David Naill Bagpipes was born. His Buckinghamshire workshop started turning out some of the finest pipes ever heard. But the going was tough. Many in Scotland, especially those of a nationalist bent, resented the GHB being made by an Englishman, more so given that they were superb instruments.
The bagpipe-making business north of the border was less antagonistic. Les was personal friends with John Weatherston and Bob Hardie of RG Hardie & Co.
Les needed a chanter to match his drones and he called Jimmy McIntosh in Dundee for advice. A few weeks later Jimmy and his protégé Murray Henderson were travelling south intent on producing a world beating pipe chanter.
And they did. Jimmy listened, Murray played and then Les, with all his skill and woodturning nous, carried out their instructions to the last detail.
Both began competing with the chanter. Success was instantaneous. Soon most of the top players were on a Naill ‘stick’. Who can forget P/M Iain Morrison winning the Clasp with Lament for the Dead at Inverness in 1980? That D Naill chanter sound will live forever with those who heard it.
The success of the chanter led to more top players trying the drones. Today, fifty years after they appeared, these pipes excel at the highest level of solo piping regularly winning Gold Medals, Silver Chanters and Bratach Gorms. All this is testimony to Les Cowell and his son Martin who took up the reins of the firm when his father’s health deteriorated.
Les Cowell was affable and hospitable and full of cockney humour as anyone who was fortunate enough to spend time with him and his late wife Pat at their splendid Minehead home will attest. He had another qualities too: loyalty and integrity. He stood by his friends in time of need. He treated everyone with the same sense of decency and fairness.
Les Cowell made a huge impact on piping but was always modest about his achievements. He raised the level of bagpipe making to new heights and set the standard for others to follow.
When I first began competing 50-odd years ago everyone was on Henderson, Lawrie or MacDougall, or some other vintage set. No one played modern pipes. That today Naill Bagpipes proliferate in the solo ranks is a fitting tribute to Leslie Cowell, master craftsman, piper and gentleman.
- If you have a memory of Les please share it in our Comments section.
I had acquired a plain button mounted set of pipes that had great steady tone and were rumoured to be Lawrie’s but I suspected were Starks. I contacted Les to see if he could help, his response was to invite me down to the works in Minehead where I was welcomed and given a tour of the workshops, after confirming the pipes were Starks and of Les’s own turning he and son Martin spent some considerable time out of their day with me. A top class craftsman and a very nice man besides! RIP Les!