The Royal Highland Fusiliers
Royal Scots Fusiliers raised
Highland Light Infantry raised
amalgamated to form The Royal Highland Fusiliers |
The Bands of The Royal Highland Fusiliers
The Bands of The Royal Scots Fusiliers
The Bands of The Royal Scots Fusiliers
That The Royal Scots Fusiliers had some music present from its earliest days is clear from the regimental rolls for 1682, showing a provision for two drummers for each of the ten companies, together with three pipers. The records from 1715 allow for drummers' pay at 1/- per day.
When the Band came into existence is less certain. A report dated 26 October 1798 talks of a 'Band consisting of 5 Sergeants, 10 Corporals, 5 Drums and 3 Privates', but some kind of musical combination must have existed prior to this, since we know of a set of instruments being presented in 1789. These instruments, however, were not destined for long service - at the end of the Peninsular War, they were lost when the Mackerel, bringing Captain Grant and some of the Regiment home to Perth, was sunk.
In 1832 white double-breasted tunics with regimental facings were ordered for the Band (as distinct from the scarlet tunics of the troops), and around the same time the old regimental pattern lace - white with a blue stripe - was replaced by plain worsted.
The 2nd Battalion was created in 1858 and soon afterwards the first bandmaster in the Regiment of whom we have any records was appointed; Sergeant G McQuade transferred from the Band of the 90th Foot in November 1860. His replacement in 1863 was Samuel Traise, the first appointment from Kneller Hall.
A couple of years later Kneller Hall also provided the 1st Battalion with a bandmaster: James, or possibly Thomas, Brophy. (There is some confusion about his name - handwritten reports give the initial T, whilst the printed copy of the 3rd Dragoons' regimental march 'The 3DGs' gives it as J.)
Though Sgt Brophy was undoubtedly a successful musician, the brevity of his tenure set an unfortunate pattern - the first four known bandmasters of the Battalion between them served for just 13 years, a sequence that culminated in the dismissal of Bandmaster Strudwick in 1880. His final confidential report was a terse 'Unsatisfactory'. It was left to his successor Sergeant James Reardon to provide some stability to the Band, remaining in the post for nearly 18 years.
Nor was this the only problem the Regiment needed to resolve. The pipes that had been a feature of the establishment since the outset seem to have disappeared sometime around the middle of the century, and in 1870 ten men had to be equipped and trained to restore the tradition.
The 2nd Battalion meanwhile had its own difficulties establishing musical continuity. In 1879 the whole battalion, including the Band, was rushed to South Africa to assist in prosecuting the Zulu War. The bandsmen served as medical orderlies and as fighting troops. The Zulu uprising was swiftly suppressed, but two further years of service in the Transvaal were then required before a move to India was authorized.
In December 1881 the 2nd relieved the 1st Battalion at Secunderabad. For a while it enjoyed a more settled period, but by the end of the decade it was back in South Africa for the Boer War.
Worse was yet to come, of course, and both Bands laid down their instruments in 1914 to fight in the Great War. The 2nd Battalion was to suffer particularly terrible losses in the slaughter at Ypres - casualties accounted for all but two lieutenants and thirty other ranks, with many bandsmen amongst those lost.
In 1917, however, both bands were re-formed and returned to their battalions in a musical capacity.
With the retirement of William Gidney, who had taken the 1st Battalion Band through the trauma of the war years, William Withers was appointed Bandmaster in 1923. He remained with the Regiment until the eve of the Second World War, the last few months being spent in the 2nd Battalion, having swapped appointments with Henry Roberts. An extremely talented musician, Bill Withers was well known in military circles as a march composer, though his tendency to sell off his works to less able writers meant that his name was less familiar to the general public.
In later years, Mr Withers was employed as senior instrument-storeman at Kneller Hall, but he made his reputation in the glory days between the wars, playing summer seasons in seaside resorts and parks. Typical of the programmes of the time is one given at the Leas Cliff Bandstand in Folkestone in 1931:
During the Second World War, the able-bodied joined the ranks, leaving the bandmasters, the infirm and the boys behind at the depot to form the nuclei of new bands.
In 1947 the 2nd Battalion was disbanded and Bandmaster Holyoak transferred to the 1st. Twelve years later the Regiment was amalgamated with the Highland Light Infantry.
The Bands of The Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) The name of The Highland Light Infantry is somewhat misleading since the Regiment was actually based in Glasgow, and did not march at light infantry speed. Indeed, for much of the Regiment's existence, the men did not even wear kilts - the 71st abandoning them in 1809 and the 74th in 1847. When the two were amalgamated in 1881, the decision whether to re-adopt the kilt was passed over to the Regiment and, mainly due to pressure from the new 2nd Battalion, was resolved in favour of trews; it was not until the disbandment of the 2nd Battalion after the Second World War that the kilt was re-introduced. References to music in the early days are sketchy, though the future Duke of Wellington, writing from Chittendore in South India in May 1804 does mention the pipers of the 74th, saying that they played delightfully. Since the Regiment had by then been in India for 17 years, any taste of home was presumably welcome also to the troops. Before the keeping of official records, there are mentions of a bandmaster in each regiment. The 51st spent the period between 1838 and 1852 in Montreal, and it is suggested that throughout this time Joseph Maffré - a well-known choral and orchestral teacher from the town - served as Bandmaster. In the 1850s the 74th were at the Cape of Good Hope, and Sergeant James McKay in his Reminiscences of the Last Kaffir War tells us that 'the Bandmaster, a native of Germany, was held in great esteem by both Officers and men'. The past tense is explained by the capture of Bandmaster Hartong during the conflict; he was subsequently tortured to death. No further details are known of Mr Hartong, and it is equally unclear whether he was immediately replaced, since the next known incumbent was Herr Kohl, another German, who did not take up the post of Bandmaster of the 74th until 1858. He was to remain with the Band for twelve years, suggesting that he was held in some regard, and his influence was felt elsewhere; the first two Kneller Hall-appointed bandmasters of the 71st - Donald McInnes and John Simpson - had served in the 74th as sergeants, and it is reasonable to suppose that they had learnt their trade from Herr Kohl. The relationship in Scottish regiments between the military band and the pipe band is notoriously sensitive. When the 71st was in India in the early 1860s, Sir Hugh Rose inadvertently stepped into this minefield by allowing the pipers to play the regiment off parade, a task normally performed by the military band. The resultant dispute spilled over into the Regiment's return to Scotland; when the men had been played into Edinburgh Castle by the Band to the strains of 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again', the pipes attempted to have the last word, striking up their own air in response. It was not until 1870 that orders were issued specifying which combination should play on which occasion. It took Queen Victoria herself to resolve another dispute, this time concerning the question of whether the pipes should march in front of or behind the band. In 1871 the Queen decreed that 'the Regiment should on all occasions march past to the Pipes ... When marching past the Pipes will fall in before the Band.' In this context it is worth noting that the 71st pipe and bugle band did not have drums until 1908, which must have made marching to the pipes extremely difficult.  Dance Band of the 2nd Highland Light Infantry, c.1938 Bandmaster J Judd The two regiments were amalgamated in the great restructuring of the infantry in 1881. Photographs taken the previous decade show the 71st band to have been 39 strong, with the 74th mustering just 19. The Bandmaster of the 71st, Donald McInnes, is seen wearing civilian clothes, despite his military rank. The three quarters of a century that The Highland Light Infantry existed produced one major musical figure from each battalion. The 1st was dominated in the inter-war years by Henry Jarman, who remained with the Battalion for twelve years before going on to become the first Bandmaster of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, where he was later promoted to Director of Music, finally retiring in the rank of Major. The 2nd Battalion saw the first major appointment of the famous John Judd, who also spent twelve years with the Regiment. He was one of the first to specialize in arrangements for combined military band and pipes and drums, starting a tradition that was to reach its peak with the chart-topping 'Amazing Grace' in 1971; there are still some who have never quite forgiven him. Judd himself went on to become Senior Director of Music in the Army. The Second World War hit both bands heavily, with many pre-war bandsmen amongst the early casualties. In the immediate aftermath, the 2nd Battalion was disbanded and Mr Wilson, the then Bandmaster, and his men transferred to the 1st. In 1959 the Regiment was amalgamated with The Royal Scots Fusiliers; Mr Ray Mitchell of the Highland Light Infantry became Bandmaster of the new Regiment.
The Band of The Royal Highland Fusiliers The band of the new regiment fulfilled its regimental duties in Scotland, Cyprus and Germany, though its most notable successes were to come further afield. A 1966 tour of America and Canada was so successful that the men were later presented with a plaque for the Best Band Tour of North America 1960-1970. In November 1970 the Band and Pipes played at the British Trade Fair in Buenos Aires, where Bandmaster John Brush re-arranged the popular Argentinian march 'San Lorenzo' for pipes, bugles and band. The tasks of modern military musicians, however, often have little to do with music. As medical assistants, the men of The Royal Highland Fusiliers helped with the horrific aftermath of the Lockerbie bombing, later being awarded the 1989 Wilkinson Sword of Peace. 1990 saw them employed on Operation Orderly during the ambulance workers' strike, and later in the Gulf War. In between came the relative comfort of a stay in Belize and a trip to Los Angeles for British Week. In 1993 they were back in Belize for a three-month tour, finding time to make a visit to Mexico. On 15 March 1994 the Band was subsumed into the new Lowland Band under the Options for Change reforms.
The History of British Military Bands, Volume Two: Guards & Infantry
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