Did you know the bagpipes played an important role for the British army during World War I?

2500 bagpipe players were in the trenches with their men.

The pipers played the clarion call to arms to the men of the British Expeditionary Forces and thus were usually the first ones “over the top.”

They stood in full view of the German lines, playing their instrument, marching through “no-man’s land” without any sort of ammunition but their sound.

The bagpipe players carried no cutting devices when they encountered barbed wire. Enemy fire mowed them down just as effectively as they killed advancing troops.

600 pipers were wounded, 500 bagpipe players died while rallying the troops into battle.

They received an extra penny a day to play their pipes.

For the most part, the bagpipes skirled out the regimental tunes to get the men moving, tunes such as Highland Laddie, Bluebonnets Over the Border, and the Minstrel Boy. You can hear twenty tunes here.

Some of the more famous bagpipe rallying tunes, The Battle of the Somme and The Bloody Fields of Flanders were written in the trenches on site.

Astonishing.

Last Surviving Bagpiper

The last bagpipe player survivor from World War I was Harry Lunan of the 5th Gordon Highlanders. He took part in the assault on High Wood in July 1916.

He described the experience as an honor:

“You were scared, but you just had to do it, they were depending on you.

In the first assault, he played the tune Cock o’ the North.

‘I played my company over the bloody top, right into the German trenches. It was stupid as hell…Men falling all around me, falling dead…it was bloody horrible.”

And after that?

“I just played whatever came into my head, but I was worried about tripping on the uneven ground, which interrupted my playing. The enemy fire was murderous, the men were falling all around me. I was lucky to survive. Hearing the pipes gave the troops courage.”

Lunan’ playing caused a variety of reactions from the non-British troops:

“The French enjoyed the pipes, they couldn’t get enough. They would sing French tunes and I would play them. The Germans were scared of the bloody pipes.”

Lunan died in Canada in 1994, age 98 years old.

The British Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming is located near Edinburgh, Scotland.

For more information, view this excellent one hour film, Pipers of the Trenches, and contemplate the courage of one brand of musicians.

Why do I know so much about WWI?

My coming-of-age novel, A Poppy in Remembrance.

Tweetables

Who knew about WWI bagpipers leading men over the top? Click to Tweet

Extraordinary courage: bagpipe players in WWI. Click to Tweet

Bagpipes in WWI trenches. Click to Tweet