Aberdeen City Police Pipe Band: a century of setting the pace
December 2007
Aberdeen City Police Pipe Band, circa 1910–1920, under the leadership of the first Pipe-Major John Henderson.
by Pipe-Major John Stewart
It was 1907, and Chief Constable William Anderson had a dream – to see the City Police Force have its own pipe band. Their tartan was to be Hunting Stewart, dark green, with a matching tunic and glengarry. And there was a constable in the force who could make it happen, John Henderson, a Pipe-Major in the making.
The stalwart Jock was born of farming stock in the Glens of Foudland in 1879. When he was only nine, he shot a wild cat in the Glens whilst on his way to school; the cat was stuffed, and sat for many years in Insch Primary School. Piping was in Jock’s blood: his uncle Peter gave him lessons from the age of 12, and his brother also played. Around this time Jock left school and began work, breaking stones for the construction of the A96, which was winding its way northwards past his home.
At 19 Jock joined Aberdeen City Police for a short time before becoming a Scots Guard, where his real piping career began. He rejoined the police in 1905.
Never a competing piper, Jock on several occasions played at Balmoral while the royal family was in residence. He played, too, before the Duke of York at the old Palace Hotel in Bridge Street, long since burned to the ground. The night was raw and Jock, playing outside, remarked to an entering guest that he wished the duke would hurry up, as his feet were freezing. Shortly, a member of staff came out with a large whisky, saying, “This is from the Duke of York. He understands that your feet are cold.” Jock had made his complaint to the duke in person.
In her 87th year, Jock’s widow recalled with pride his smart appearance and the hours he spent cleaning his kit. Her only complaint was that he spoilt the image with his old broken clay pipe as he strutted down the road to police headquarters.
An excerpt from the Aberdeen Journal of 1927 tells how thousands of people, many of them in tears, witnessed the cortege of James Scott Skinner, the Strathspey King, as it made its way from his home at 25 Victoria Street to Allenvale Cemetery. Preceded by the kilted City Police Pipe Band under Pipe-Major Sergeant Henderson and Drum-Major Constable David Ross, the procession moved slowly off to the plaintive lament, Flowers o’ the Forest.
Between the two world wars, Aberdeen City Police Pipe Band flourished and was welcomed in the parks, at parades and highland gatherings. But in 1930 Jock, a sergeant by this time, had a row with his superiors over a matter of intemperance. Rather than accept demotion, he quit the force after 26 years. Despite a change of heart by his superiors, Jock was resolute. He had been Pipe-Major for 23 years, still a record in the band’s history. His many melodies remain, one for the Glens of Foudland of his youth.
Later, working in a sawmill, he lost the thumb and some fingers of his right hand. Realising that he would never play again, his wife sold his beloved pipes, to save him anguish. Jock turned to another of his loves, the works of Robert Burns, and entertained at many’s a Burns Supper throughout the city. When Jock died at his home at Cornhill Drive, Aberdeen, in 1954, George Mackie, a former member of the band, played the pipes at the funeral service.
Bagpipes made in wash-house
When Jock left the force, Pipe-Major Charlie Smith stepped in. Born in Mintlaw in 1888, he had no musical background, but served an apprenticeship as a blacksmith, then joined the police when he was 20. The Police Review & Parade Gossip of 1915 tells that several members of the band had gone to war, so it was disbanded. Police pipers Charles Smith and John Clark joined the Harry Lauder Pipe Band, which toured the country recruiting.
As well as competing and judging at Highland games, Charlie was a composer, one of his most famous tunes being the Dundee City Police March. He made bagpipes, too, in an old wash-house at 40 Esslement Avenue in Aberdeen, the only bagpipe maker in the North of Scotland at the time. An article in a local paper of 1930 explained how he had been experimenting by reducing a full-size set of pipes into a half-size set, and finally to a miniature set by inserting hollow ebony tubes into the drones
Young Charlie remembered how on wet night, Jock Henderson, working the beat, would pop in to keep dry, and talk to his father about the band. Having stayed as long as he dared, Jock would go out to the wash-house and soak his tippet, so that his sergeant would think he had been pounding his beat all night.
Although Charlie passed all his exams, he remained a constable for the full 30 years of his service. He retired in 1938, then worked as a commissionaire in the BBC Beechgrove studios until his death in 1950.
John McRobert, the third pipe-major, was born in Glasgow in 1902, and brought up in Dennistoun. His first instrument was the fiddle, but as he was prone to chest infection, his doctor suggested he take up the bagpipes. His first instructor was a Donald Currie, a gas worker, from South Uist, who taught him until he was 15, by which time Donald had joined the Boys Brigade and was winning medals around Glasgow and Cowal. He learned Piobaireachd, too, from a Pipe-Major MacIver
While serving an apprenticeship with Fairfield Shipyard, John injured his left index finger badly; only the fact that he was a piper persuaded the hospital staff not to amputate.
In 1922 the family moved to Woodside and John worked as a driver, latterly with the Suburban Tramway Company, operating from the Castlegate. In due course his piping ability led him to be invited to join the Aberdeen City Police, and in 1938 he became pipe-major.
The outbreak of war caused all piping activities to cease. When the war ended, there was to be a victory parade down Union Street and Chief Constable McConnach wanted the pipe band to take part, although John protested that they were not in practice. Over-ruled, the result was predictably disastrous and John tendered his resignation as pipe-major.
In his 24th year in the service he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and worked in office and traffic duties. An abstainer, he retired in 1955 to his superbly-kept home at Clifton Road, Aberdeen. He modestly produced a wooden box to let me see his 44 silver medals, a testament to his piping ability. The gold medals he had given to members of his family.
A difficult time for the band
The band languished after John’s retirement, there being no obvious successor. Pipe-Major Charlie Smith’s scrapbook tells how ex-Sergeant Bill Emslie and the late Bill Norrie were crucial in holding the band together at that difficult time. A photograph dated January 1948 shows John Cochrane, the drum-major, getting a send-off from pipers and drummers when he left Aberdeen Joint Station to start a new life in Canada. Another shows Deputy Chief Constable Alexander Mathieson and Inspector Hugh McQueen inspecting the band, about to make their first appearance at a New Year’s Day football match between the Dons and Dundee. Another cutting reveals that for 18 months, 20 policement had been practising pipes and drums at Lodge Walk. In a final cutting, dated 1951, Joseph Grant, secretary of the Braemar Society, announces that, for the first time since before the war, Aberdeen City Police Pipe Band would be playing at the Braemar Highland Gathering.
William McKay at the age of 25 was to become the fourth pipe-major for the shortest period in the band’s history. Born in Urquhart, Morayshire, in 1892, he left school at the age of 14 and went to work on a farm. At the outbreak of war in 1914, he joined the 4th/7th Gordons and served as a piper throughout. Life expectancy for the average soldier in action was just a few months; as Willie went over the top in battle, a German bullet struck him in the chest, passed through his left lung and out of his back. Badly wounded, he owed his life to a young English soldier who carried him on his back to safety. After recuperation at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, Willie served in France until the end of hostilities.
When the war was over, he returned to the Aberdeen City Police, playing in the band as before. He competed in Piobaireachd at the Northern Meeting competitions in Inverness; his greatest success being at the Lonach Gathering when he won the Open Piobaireachd.
After his retirement from the police in 1943, he worked as a clerk in the local Food Office, then at the age of 58, sat a Civil Service examination and came first in the whole of Scotland.
Meantime the pipe band had crumbled, and Willie agreed to reform it, despite being in charge of both the Air Training Corps and Boy Scout bands in Aberdeen. It took him 18 months to get the band back into playing form, to hand over to Neville MacKay in 1951.
Willie gave up piping when he was 70, but often followed competitions to Oban or Edinburgh. He settled in Hillview Cottage, Wellington Road, Aberdeen, and died in 1968, after an operation for cancer. Willie was buried in Springbank Cemetery, to the strains of Pipe-Major Donald Morrison playing Happy We’ve Been a’ Thegither at the request of his family.
Neville MacKay was born in New Zealand in 1925, of Scots ancestors who had left Skye in 1837. His tutors were Bob Thomson, pupil of the great Macdougall Gillies, and ex-Cameronians & Seaforth Highlanders pipe-major Sandy Cameron. Neville returned to the land of his people to enhance his knowledge of piping, learning initially from Pipe-Major M. B. Robertson of the Scots Guards. Joining the Inverness Burgh Police, he had lessons from Pipe-Major John MacDonald, many of them at his home when he was on duty. Fortunately there was a police beacon nearby, where Neville could be contacted.
An enthusiastic welcome
Neville joined Aberdeen City Police in 1951 not only as a constable, but as pipe-major of their band. He was welcomed enthusiastically by Alexander Mathieson and Hugh MacQueen, two highlanders with a shared love of the pipes, both of whom rose in the ranks to become well-known figures.
The new Pipie had the task of easing some of the less able players gently out of the band, which was not in its best fettle. Outspoken by nature, he sometimes had the band wincing at the way he addressed his superiors. One officer suggested at the end of a band outing that it was time they were heading for home. Neville rounded on him, reminding him that he was pipe-major, and he would say when the bus left.
On another occasion, the band was due to make its first appearance for many a long day at Pittodrie. It was wet and wintry, and when a senior officer suggest it was time they were out playing, Neville told him shortly that their kit and instruments would be ruined and there was no way they were going out. The band held its collective breath as Neville then asked the officer to go out and check the weather. He did. The rain had stopped and the day was saved.
Neville’s task was helped by having Donald Morrison in the band. As a solo piper, Neville was fourth in the Inverness Gold Medal Piobaireachd in 1950-51, and enjoyed modest success in the lighter pipe music competitions.
Retiring from the police in 1953, Neville returned to New Zealand for a spell – he had always retained his native accent. When he came back to Britain in 1973, it was to take up a post with British Airways at Heathrow. He was last heard of living with his wife at Maidenhead in the Thames Valley.
Donald Morrison is a name which is recognized around the piping world. One of the most successful pipe-majors in the band’s history, his success lay not only in bringing the band up to a high standard, but in winning nearly every major piping prize. He was the first piper in Britain to win a prize of £100; this was the coveted Bratach Gorm, or blue ribbon, in 1973. He also won the Inverness gold medal and the Dunvegan Silver Chanter.
Born in 1927 in the cradle of piping, the island of South Uist, his early tuition was from his father and elder brother. The great master of piping, Pipe-Major John MacDonald of Inverness, held monthly classes in South Uist for 30 years until 1938, laying a fine musical foundation. In 1946 the Queen’s Piper, Pipe-Major Bob Nicol, held classes on the island and Donald attended. Enthralled, he continued to learn Piobaireachd from Bob for many years.
After National Service and a spell in the Merchant Navy, Donald joined Aberdeen City Police, attending band practice on his first day. Asked to play a selection of tunes for Deputy Chief Constable Alexander Mathieson and Hugh MacQueen, they were not impressed. Mathieson then asked Donald if he could play Marie’s Wedding, and on the strength of this simple tune, he was allowed to join the band.
Douglas Hotel ceilidh
It was 1953. Donald and Neville were determined to improve the standard of piping. New blood was required. They contacted highland regiments and kept their eyes open at the major piping competitions. Neville was keen to have Pipe-Major Bob Brown, the Queen’s Piper, tutor the band, but could not find a place to practise. He arranged a ceilidh in the Douglas Hotel with guest Pipe-Majors Bob Nicol, Bob Brown and Donald MacLeod, and invited Chief Constable James MacConnach. The chief constable was greatly impressed, and by the end of the evening he announced that the police gymnasium and canteen would be open to non-police members, free of charge, for piping instruction. But for this kindly act, Piobaireachd might have died out in this area.
In 1954 the band took part in the royal review of Scottish police forces at Hyde Park, the farthest they had travelled. Later in the Fifties, after months of building up repertoire, the band was engaged to give recitals in the parks. Donald was beginning to attract high calibre pipers, like John Stewart, Ian Blair, Jimmy Hamilton and Jim Christie.
The band ceased to be the Aunt Sally of the North-East, and started winning prizes in the face of stiff opposition. Donald took the band up to Grade II, and trained up several quartets. All this time he was competing as a soloist, and winning major awards.
After 17 dedicated years, Donald quit the band. In 1982 he retired from the police, but travelled Australia, New Zealand and South Africa passing on his skills to young musicians. Donald died of cancer in 1988, and one wonders if the band will ever again reach that peak of excellence.
To be continued…
Pipe-Major John Stewart was born in Aviemore in 1935, into a piping family. A composer, he won the Braemar Gold Medal for Piobaireachd.
This is an article from the December 2007 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.