Wouldn’t it be interesting to go back in time to piping contests held in the late 1950s-60s and see all the legends of piping from that era? Think of the bigger than life names, such as John MacFayden, Donald MacPherson, John D Burgess, Donald MacLeod, and many others.
One name, maybe not as prominent, but certainly competitive, would have been Hamilton Workman. Hammie, as he was affectionately known to me and many others, was a student of the great Willie Ross at the Army School at Edinburgh Castle and graduated from the Pipe Major’s course under Ross around the same time as John Burgess.
By Jon Shell
By age 18, as Pipe Major of the 1st Highland Light Infantry, Hammie was the youngest Pipe Major in the British Army. He would later be appointed Personal Piper to Lord Louis Mountbatten at Balmoral.
Hammie was close friends with John D and Willie MacDonald, Benbecula, (also an HLI man). He went through the P/M’s course with Willie and was best man at his wedding.
Hammie was an apprentice pipe maker for RG Lawrie, and later worked for Peter Henderson and Piob Mhor. He made pipes with Bob Hardie for a period as well.
At the Uist and Barra contest in 1959 he was listed in the competition hunt with names like Donald MacLean and Ronnie Lawrie. After emigrating to the United States, he won several prizes and was most always in the prize list with Roddy MacDonald and Sandy Jones in the 1960s.
Hammie would establish the prize winning Grade 2 Clan Sutherland Pipe Band, who won Best Overseas Band at Cowal around 1980. He also taught Ron Shafer, John Sullivan and Brian Yates, and would teach me and many others during summers at the North American Academy of Piping and Drumming in the 1980s with P/M Sandy Jones. He would continue teaching at the NAAPD until his death in 1990.
Local piper Ron Shafer, considered Hammie’s protégé, came to lessons each Saturday for nearly ten years and the results showed. Ron won big in piobaireachd, winning 12 MacCrimmon Quaichs in one year in Grade 1 Amateur and later topped some big names in the Open in the Eastern US contests. Ron and I were contemporaries for several years in Grade 1.
Ron received Hammie’s books when he passed away and he and his wife Maggie asked me, since I still teach, if I’d be interested in having them. I said ‘absolutely!’. We arranged to pick them up on my way to help teach the Florida Piping and Drumming Academy, just held in late February.
The Kilberry Book and Piobaireachd Society Books were bound and embossed with his name on them by one of his piping students who had just started a bookbinding business. A one-of-a-kind bound index of the Society Books was also included:
One Willie Ross book was hand signed and reflects his early time as a proud soldier at the Castle as ‘L/Cpl Workman, HLI, The Castle, Edinburgh’:
I must admit, I didn’t really feel like I deserved these books in any way, but Ron and Maggie gifted them to me and I am touched by their kindness.
I have many memories of Hammie. He was a real gentleman and a piper’s piper. One story from Ron I hope illustrates that. It is from 1985 when we were at a garden party hosted by John and Maggie Kidd in conjunction with the Alexandria, Virginia Highland Games. Several pipers and friends of the Kidd’s including Hammie and Sandy Jones were invited.
Ron relates: ‘Across one side of the back garden was a long table spread with a linen table cloth and covered with all manner of hors d’oeuvres and finger foods. Maggie and her daughters had obviously spent many hours preparing the spread, and I, with my plate in hand, was fully prepared to take full advantage.
‘As I finished filling my plate and began to walk away, I heard ‘Ronald’ in a secretive but assertive tone. Hammie was motioning for me to come over. He bared his teeth and pointed to a large gap where he had lost a tooth.
‘What happened,’ I asked. ‘I took a bite out of this,’ he said embarrassingly holding up a pastry, ‘and my bloody tooth came out!’
‘Being as inconspicuous as we could in kilts, we prodded the grass with the toes of our gillies trying to uncover the missing tooth. Just then Maggie came over looking curious. ‘Did you drop something?’, she asked. Hammie smiled politely and explained.
‘The three of us began prodding around in the grass and looking under the table. I noticed Sandy headed our way. Now the four of us were beginning to make a show as we looked all around the table. After a couple of minutes of rooting around, Sandy bent down and picked up a small object.
‘What’s this?’ He held up the tooth in his thumb and forefinger. When Hammie saw it, he smiled a broad smile with a hole in the middle of it. Sandy immediately pointed at the gap and burst out in laughter. When we got to piping school, Hammie found some glue and glued his tooth back in.’
- If any reader has memories of Hammie please record them in our comments section below.
Classic Strathspeys & Reels – Vol. 1 (A – F)
Some of the all time great competition strathspeys and reels are listed here. Each is played in full on the practice chanter by Robert Wallace. Firstly he goes through the tune very slowly at a practice tempo and then he plays it a little more quickly, closer to performance speed. Download your tune and then try playing along. If the tune you need is not listed email pipingpress@gmail.com.
