Club member Ronald Smith was discussing some reminiscences with me, and during the course of the conversation about The Great War and its decimation of pipers (and 7,750,000 other young men of that generation who died), he sent me these family photos.
Seaforth pipers
From right to left, back (standing): unknown; Neil MacLennan, John MacDonald (S. Uist)
Right to left, front (sitting): Allan MacDonald (Broadford); unknown
In this photo of Cameron pipers: unknown; unknown; William MacDonald (Broadford); unknown
From what we know, all of the Seaforth pipers survived the war, having been assigned the duty of stretcher-bearers because of the high attrition rate pipers had suffered. John MacDonald, of course, went on to become P/M of Glasgow City Police Pipe Band.
Of the Cameron pipers in the bottom photograph, none of them survived.
The Great War was an astonishingly devastating and profoundly stupid war. The numbers of casualties are beyond the scope of your imagination - within a month, casualties reached 1,000,000.
In a month. 1,000,000 soldiers. Imagine that. While un-numbered civilians are wounded, displaced, killed in the crossfire. In one single month.
Along the Western Front the dead were left on the fields to rot; trench diggers regularly came across body parts as they dug and sandbagged. “Here’s a bit of Bill!” “Here’s another bit of Bill!” “Here’s Bill’s ugly mug!” Can you imagine the horror?
For an incredibly powerful and gripping podcast on this time in European history, visit Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, and listen to “The Blueprint for Armageddon I-VI”.
What does this have to do with piping? Well, first I recommend you go here and fast forward to 33:45 and listen to who was present in the first Battle of Ypres (at 35:21 you’ll understand), where the remainder of the British Expeditionary Forces killed 100,000 German troops, while outnumbered up to 6:1. These were the most elite fighters in the world, and we know the names of their regiments.
Then, watch this BBC documentary in full, but pay particular attention to 18:11 to 22:45. The Battle of the Somme lasted from July 1st, 1916 to November 1st, 1916. Total casualty count - 1,120,000.
Over 1,000 pipers were lost to that war. So many severed links to the past lost in such a short period. Their astonishing bravery in the face of certain death is something we should never forget.
Nor should we forget the loss that our music suffered as a result.
The so called, Great War, was the first industrialised war in which modern technology, beyond the dreams of previous generations could bring, using steam powered trains and steam powered boats, large numbers of fighting forces together in battle. My g-g-g-grandfather for example was fighting Napoleon in Spain during the Peninsular War. His regiment was sent to Waterloo but ARRIVED TO LATE FOR THE BATTLE. One hundred years later he would almost certainly have arrived ‘in time’. Ans would have many, many others!
‘And so’ would have many, many others!
The loss of William Lawrie and G.S. McLennan, to name but two, is inestimable. And for what? A family squabble.
GS was not killed in the Great War. He died in 1929.
From http://www.pipetunes.ca: “G. S. served in the trenches late in the First World War. On May 14, 1918 he became ill. Two days later he played ‘A’ Company over the top and the next day collapsed with sickness. It was an illness that would never leave him.” Sadly, McLennan untimely death resulted from this illness contracted during the war. To me he was a casualty of the war, even if he didn’t die during the war. If he had lived we would have a clear record of his piobaireachd style, described as “quicker and more rhythmical” than the norm. The damp and fetid trenches, to say nothing of mustard gas, must have ruined many pipers’ lungs.
My old man used to see gas victims in the neighborhood that would come visit my grandfather (also a WWI vet). He described the scars from burns were nothing compared to the hacking rattling coughs. And this was in the early 30s, long after Armistice Day. The irony is that my grandfather also served on a salvage vessel in WWII and had to clean up Bari harbor after the luftwaffe bombed US ships containing mustard gas that were berthed there in case the SS used gas in their retreat up the Italian peninsula. He saw gas victims from both wars. How quickly we forget.