Author: Jeannie Campbell

WW2 Piping: As the Battles Raged Abroad the Music Continued at Home

Posted on      by      1 Comment

On the Home Front, many pipers who were either too old or two young for service in the forces, or who were in reserved occupations, joined the Home Guard and many pipe bands were formed within that organisation.   John Seton served with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the First World War and afterwards joined the Glasgow Police. For many years he was the Drum Major of the police band….

More WW2 Piping: As the Battles Raged Abroad the Music Continued at Home

WW2 Piping: John Wilson ‘Not Dead’ and the Reel of the 51st Highland Division

Posted on      by      3 Comments

In January 1940 John Wilson went over to France with his regiment. He was taken prisoner at St Valery in June 1940 and lost his pipe case and all the contents. He spent the rest of the war in prisoner of war camps.  His ‘death’ was reported in the pages of Piping and Dancing magazine but in the issue of the following month it was reported that he was not…

More WW2 Piping: John Wilson ‘Not Dead’ and the Reel of the 51st Highland Division

Piping In WW2: Prisoners of War Keep their Music Alive

Posted on      by      2 Comments

There was piping activity in the POW camps and this was supported by the pipers on the home front. Piping societies were raising money to send instruments to the prisoners and the monthly magazine Piping and Dancing encouraged readers to write to prisoners.  A member of the College of Piping Veteran’s Association, Sinclair Swanson, remembered his time as a prisoner: ‘My father was a piper in the first war and…

More Piping In WW2: Prisoners of War Keep their Music Alive

Piping in WW2: The Army School Expands Its Teaching to All Serving Pipers

Posted on      by      Leave a comment

The Piobaireachd Society had founded and paid for the Army Class in 1910. Its aim was to improve the standard of piping in Scottish regiments. By 1939 it had grown into the Army School of Piping and P/M William Ross was in charge of the school based in Edinburgh Castle. In December that year, three months after the outbreak of war, his services were placed, with his consent, at the…

More Piping in WW2: The Army School Expands Its Teaching to All Serving Pipers

Piping in WW2: Personal Stories from the Home Front

Posted on      by      2 Comments

We continue with our well received history by Jeannie Campbell. The picture above shows the KOSB regimental Pipes and Drums leading a parade down a bleak Princes Street, Edinburgh, in 1939….. The late Dr Jimmy Campbell has memories of wartime piping. This is his story: ‘My first year as a medical student in 1941 included service in the Senior Training Corps, fire watching and guard duty. Invasion was expected so…

More Piping in WW2: Personal Stories from the Home Front