Mr Dave Mason, of South Africa and Cincinatti, USA, has been declared the winner of the composing competition for a tune to commemorate World War 2 flying hero John Cruickshank VC. Mr Mason receives £1,000. The competition was for a suitable march to mark the life and valour of Mr Cruickshank VC of Aberdeen. Read more about his incredible bravery here. The competiton was sponsored by the Royal Northern and…

The PP archive has an old cassette copy of the Masters of Piping programme Seumas MacNeill did on P/M Willie Ross for BBC Radio Scotland. Click this link and scroll down to ‘Seumas MacNeill’ to listen. This historic recording features the playing of John Burgess with short interviews with Duncan Cameron, Islay, Ed Esson, Vancouver, DR MacLennan, Angus MacAulay, South Uist, and John Burgess. A wide array of P/M Ross’s…

We are grateful for these two comprehensive responses to the request for tunes associated with the Highland Light Infantry regiment of the British Army. They followed a request for assistance from Andrew Reid the piper for the regiment’s veterans association. The picture above shows the regiment pipe band parading in Cairo, Egypt, in 1946. Reader David Livingstone: For what it’s worth, my 1932 potted history of line regiments lists HLI…

Pipe Bands South Australia and the RU Brown Piping Society of South Australia have released details of an Australian Solo Piping Championships for light music and associated events in Adelaide on 13 and 14 April 2019. Pipe Bands Australia granted the South Australian branch permission to hold the solo piping championships for light music following the branch’s request for approval of the initiative in commencing the nation’s premier solo piping…

Film producer Alexander Menu has writen to PP: ‘I am contacting you to proudly announce my team and I are working on a European short film about a young bagpiper during the First World War. This has been a passion project of mine for many years. ‘The short film, ‘Sound of the Somme’ is about the last day in the journal of 20-year-old bagpiper James C. Richardson, awarded the Victoria…