The Queen's Own Highlanders
Seaforth Highlanders raised
Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders raised
amalgamated to form The Queen's Own Highlanders
amalgamated to form The Highlanders |
The Bands of The Queen's Own Highlanders
The Bands of The Seaforth Highlanders
The Bands of The Seaforth Highlanders
The regiment that was to become the 1st Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders was originally raised as the 78th but was subsequently re-numbered the 72nd. A new 78th was raised in 1793 and, in the 1881 programme of infantry amalgamations, this became the 2nd Battalion.
A regimental roll from May 1778, the first year of the senior regiment's existence, lists an establishment of 22 pipes and drums, a total which included the first Pipe-Major, Roderick McKenzie. When the military band was formed is not known, though an article in a 19th century edition of the regimental magazine Cabar Feidh (Stag's Head, named after the cap badge) states:
A Brass Band, or 'Band of Musik' was added some years after the regiment was raised, and which at first, as in other corps, had several foreigners (Germans or Swiss) in it. Certainly the Band was fully functioning by 1824, for there is a report that in that year the Regiment had keyed bugles and was considering the purchase of a 'Royal Patent Basso - Hibernicon' and a 'Hibernicon - Tenor Horn'.
Around this time too was appointed the first bandmaster of whom we know. Mr Ricks, believed to have been of German origin, took up the post some-time in the 1820s, and was succeeded in 1854 by his son Seaton Ricks. He in turn was replaced in November 1865 by John Murdock, who had joined the Band at the age of thirteen nearly twenty years earlier and had completed a short course at Kneller Hall; the next incumbent, Charles Frederick Murdock, is thought to have been his brother.
The first Kneller Hall-approved bandmaster of the 78th came in September 1868 with the arrival from The Essex Regiment of Mr McEleney.
The 72nd were posted to Dublin during the late 1860s, and the military band was in great demand playing at public functions.
More pressing demands were made on the 78th the following decade. Stationed in India, the Regiment was ordered to Kohat on the outbreak of war with Afghanistan in 1878 and the Band was reduced to the regulation strength of 24, with the remainder of the bandsmen taking their places in the ranks. The march to Kohat took a month, and the men were accompanied by the military band and the pipe band playing whenever it was possible so to do. During the ensuing campaign, the bandsmen worked both as musicians and as medical orderlies.
Further military action was seen in the Egyptian war of 1882, before the Regiment returned home to Pankhurst on the Isle of Wight. There the Band played at the funeral of HRH The Duke of Albany.
Later that decade the Band of the 2nd Battalion played at the Edinburgh Exhibition of 1886, where the composition was recorded as: 1 flute/piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 Eb clarinets, 2 bass clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 4 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 baritones, 1 euphonium, 4 basses and 2 drummers.
In common with most infantry regiments, the Seaforths had a fife and drum band for some years, though it appears to have been disbanded some time after 1885.
It was in the latter part of the 19th century that a regimental custom was established of not playing when going to or coming from church parade on Sundays. Tradition has it that the practice originated at the Inverness depot, where the local authorities did not encourage bands playing in the streets on the Sabbath. When this was brought to the attention of Queen Victoria, she expressed her wish that it be continued.
The Band of the 2nd Battalion built up a good reputation as a concert band in the years leading up to the Great War. A typical programme was at the Alexander Palace in 1913:
At the outset of the Great War most of the bandsmen were immediately employed either as stretcher bearers or in the ranks as soldiers. Mention should be made of drummer Walter Ritchie of the 1st Battalion, who, on the first morning of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, stood on the parapet of the trench under heavy gunfire, sounding the regimental call and the charge; he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Musicians in the Army, of course, have always occupied a curious position in the wider military world, and nowhere is the ambivalent attitude of the regular soldier to the bandsman better expressed than in the June 1929 issue of Cabar Feidh:
In our time one could pick out a bandsman anywhere. Nice oily hair... clean shaven, despite King's Regulations, an Oxford drawl, and un unwholesome appetite for wads and chocolate - so we pictured a bandsman.... It was an easier job following in Beethoven's footsteps, than picking feet in the Company.
One such band member to win the DCM was Band Sergeant WH Platt.
The bands and the pipes and drums also contributed to the war effort in less direct ways. A visit to America was reported by a US newspaper:
The Brass Band left N'Yark stone cold, but when the Pipes began to skirl in front of the Town Hall 1000 New Yorkers enrolled in one evening and set the war spirit simmering. Stationed in India, the Band of the 2nd Battalion played for the visit to Delhi of HRH The Duke of Connaught in February 1921, and then the following decade for the visit of HRH The Prince of Wales. A decade later both Battalions were in Palestine and the Bands combined for a retreat in Haifa in honour of HRH The Princess Royal. The royal connexion continued in May 1935, when the Band of the 1st was chosen to play for the King's Jubilee celebrations in Cyprus.
In the early 1930s the Band of the 1st, conducted by George Hespe, enjoyed great popularity with civilian audiences, but later it was the 2nd, under Arthur Brunsden, which became the favourite.
| ||||
|
With the restructuring of the Army after the Second World War, the 2nd Battalion was disbanded in 1948 and Bandmaster Brunsden transferred to the 1st. On 7 October 1953 he was piped out of Fort George on his retirement after 38 years' service. He had been promoted to sergeant in September 1921 and was now reputed to be the oldest serving WO1 in the British Army. Whilst serving in Malaya in 1950, he had been mentioned in dispatches, and he was awarded the MBE in 1952. In summer 1953 the pipes and drums toured Sweden and Denmark. Whilst in the Canal Zone the following year, the military band massed with the Middle East Air Force Band, under the baton of Wing Commander Sims, for the El Alamein commemorations. After serving in Egypt, the Regiment moved to Gibraltar in 1956 and then on to Germany in 1958. |  | ||||
|
The Bands of The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders The date of birth of the Camerons' band is unknown; in early inspection reports, musicians are conspicuous by their absence - a report from April 1799 states 'No Band of Music', whilst one from 1801 mentions only drummers. Presumably there were also pipes; certainly there were by the time of Waterloo, for the actions of Piper Kenneth MacKay in playing outside the square on the battlefield so impressed George III that he presented the man with a set of silver-mounted pipes. Also remembered from the long wars with Napoleon is Drummer Charles Bogle, a black musician who was killed at the 1812 Siege of Burgos. There is also an account of the 79th at Waterloo, however, that tells us the regiment marched to the battle to the sound not of pipers but of a military band playing 'Loudon's Bonnie Woods and Braes', so we must assume that such a formation existed by this stage. Further evidence of a band comes in an extant document from the early 19th century, 'Orders for the Assistance and Guidance of the Non-Commissioned Officers of the 1st Battalion 79th Regiment':
The first bandmaster in regimental records is Adam Schott, who is believed to have joined the 79th on its return from Canada in 1836 and who stayed until 1844, when he moved to the Grenadier Guards. An issue of the regimental magazine, the 79th News, from the end of the century, talks of Herr Schott's replacement being another German, Ernest Fromm, who had been recruited from the Prussian Army. Herr Fromm, according to this article, remained with the regiment until its return from India in 1871. There is mention elsewhere, however, of a different succession: Sgt McLaren (1844-59), Sgt White (1866-69) and Sgt Frome (1869-72). It is possible that these three were Band Sergeants - as opposed to being Bandmaster Sergeants - and that they were thus responsible for parades and other military functions, whilst Herr Fromm handled the musical training of the Band. This interpretation is supported by the facts that all three came from within the 79th and that the first bandmaster appointed by Kneller Hall, James McDonald, took charge in 1872. The Regiment had by this stage already made a contribution to the emergence of Kneller Hall, with one of the pupils on the first ever course being Lance-Corporal R Sweeney of the 79th, later to be appointed Bandmaster of the 2nd Buffs. An 1868 photograph taken in Mussoorie in North India shows Herr Fromm in civilian clothes whilst the bandsmen are resplendent in kilts. The strength at the time was: 2 flutes/piccolos, 1 Eb clarinet, 8 Bb clarinets, 4 bassoons, 2 horns, 4 cornets, 2 trumpets, 1 baritone, 2 tenor trombones, 2 bass trombones, 1 euphonium and 2 basses. This complement of 31 musicians was over-strength, but this was a situation tolerated by commanding officers at the time, so long as the surplus bandsmen returned to the ranks for inspections and when military duty called. In this latter role, Bandsman David Hogg was killed in the battle at Kosheh Fort in December 1885. The second half of the 19th century saw the establishment of a remarkable dynasty within the regiment. Terence Sweeney, a soldier in the 79th, produced five sons who all went on to serve in the Band; the first to enlist was Robert, later Bandmaster of The Buffs, in 1843, followed by William (who went on to become a bandmaster in America), Donald Spence, John and James. Donald Spence Sweeney retired in 1875 as Band Sergeant, a position later occupied by his son, Daniel. Another son, Richard, was also a bandsman, though he was to die at Aisne during the Great War. The quality of musicianship in the later years of the century was evidenced by this report from a Scottish newspaper in 1892:
This is assumed to be the Sgt White referred to above, who had retired from the Regiment in 1869. The amalgamations of 1881 paired off the infantry regiments, but because there was an odd number of regiments in the Army, the Camerons remained unaffected, becoming instead the only foot regiment to have just one battalion. This anomalous position gave rise to fears that the Camerons would be subsumed into the Scots Guards, but the personal intervention of Queen Victoria - who had earlier bestowed the title 'Queen's Own' upon the Regiment - ensured its survival, and in 1897 it raised a second battalion to bring itself into line with the rest of the Army. The following year a bandmaster was appointed from Kneller Hall, Henry Fisher, who was evidently a success for he stayed with the 2nd Battalion until 1921. During his time with the Band he formed an orchestra, and there are several accounts of a string quartet playing at various functions. The '90s were good years too for the 1st Battalion. It spent some years stationed in Malta, a favourite with the troops because of its warm but not unreasonable climate and the quality of the accommodation it offered. There were other bands also on the island, providing the opportunity for massed band events. One such was a Grand Military Tattoo held on 28 September 1893, when the band and pipes of the Camerons combined with the bands of the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, 1st Royal West Surreys and 1st North Staffords, and with the Royal Artillery trumpeters. The programme demonstrates the popularity of Wagner: Retreat sounded by massed bugles, fifes and drums Regimental variety concerts, with contributions from a variety of performers, were also popular. A concert in the Garrison Recreation Rooms in December 1895 featured Suppé's overture, 'Pique Dame', alongside a humorous trio of two oboes and a bassoon and a display of sword dancing by the pipers. The 2nd Battalion also served on a Mediterranean island, in this case Gibraltar, where the local newspaper reported in 1900 that Bandmaster Fisher had premiered his new march, 'Buena Vista', at a concert in Barrack Square, Buena Vista. Mr Fisher was noted in his day as a fine military composer; one of his successors, Wally Babbs, was impressed many years later by 'a splendid march incorporating the Scottish Lament "The Flowers of the Forest"'. By 1908 the 1st Battalion was back in Britain, stationed in Tidworth, from where trips were undertaken to play at various south coast resorts. A report from the Sussex Daily News shows the depth and quality of the repertoire in those times:
Other favourite composers included Tchaikovsky, Sullivan and Verdi. The Great War saw both the military band and the pipes disbanded, though both were to re-form - the pipes in 1916 and the band the following year. In 1931 the Band of the 2nd Battalion under Bandmaster Griggs was chosen by the War Office to play at the British Trade Exhibition in Buenos Aires, an exhibition opened by the Prince of Wales. Concerts were also given in San Paulo, Santos, Montevideo, Rio di Janeiro and Lisbon. Mr Griggs was a prolific arranger - signing his pieces 'Arranged C.W.G.' - and most of the Band's programmes featured his works. He specialized in Scottish fantasias, which he called Grand Cameron Finales, and which included such titles as: 'The Castle Ruins', 'The Kilt and the Sporran', 'Chief of the Clan', 'The Cameron Country', 'Loch Ness' and 'The Dirk and the Thistle'. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the bandsmen joined the ranks, with the two bandmasters returning to the depot at Inverness with the boys. Part of the task of the military band, of course, is to embody the living history and tradition of the regiment, and a key element in this has long been the regimental drums, with the battle honours emblazoned upon them. When, therefore, the 4th Battalion was forced to surrender at St-Valéry with the 51st (Highland) Division in 1940, the drums were thrown into a pond to avoid capture. In 1987 two of the five drums were finally returned to the Regiment.  1st Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, c.1890 Bandmaster R Wakelin The Band of The Queen's Own Highlanders When the Seaforths and Camerons were amalgamated in 1961, the Bands came together under the leadership of Wally Babs, formerly Bandmaster of the Camerons. Two years later he left to take up a post with the British Military Mission in Libya, and was replaced by Barry Langton. 1989 was a particularly busy and successful year for the Band, with trips to Italy, Holland, France and Poland. The latter was to participate in the commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, and included a visit to the site of Auschwitz concentration camp, where Pipe Sergeant John MacDonald played a lament for the dead. With the Band on the tour were 150 ex-prisoners of war. During the Second Gulf War the men were employed in their secondary role as medical orderlies. They did, however, take their instruments with them and possibly the high-point was a trip to Riyadh to play for the 215th anniversary of the US Marine Corps.
The History of British Military Bands, Volume Two: Guards & Infantry
Home | |||||
