The following excerpt refers to the 15th Scottish Division Pipe Major. I wonder if it's possible to identify who that was? Was there, in fact, a divisional pipe band or could he have been a regimental pipe major? "The shattered companies of the Canadian Scottish were relieved by the Royal Regiment of Canada on the evening of February 21st (1945). As they moved out from Heseler Feld, the troops were met by pipers, who led the exhausted and dejected men back into Bedburg. “The shrill, triumphant sound of the pipes gave something to the men that nothing else could,” the regiment history noted with pride. “Almost automatically, the bone-weary soldiers began to march in step”. Captain Bailey remembers the galvanized moment: “When we brought the battalion out, there were only two officers and about 165 men left in the four rifle companies. I wasn’t too badly off, I had about 60 men left, but C Company had five. They had been virtually wiped out. We started marching back and the piper called, ‘What will you have, lads’ and they replied, Cock of the North’! “The whole battalion pipe band met us and led us into town. As we marched back through the lines of the 15th Scottish Division, I can still remember some of the Scots shoving their heads out, ‘C’mon, stand back you guys, let the soldiers come in. It’s the Canadian Scottish, or what’s left of them!’ It was a wonderfully cheerful sort of camaraderie.” Major William Matthews, second-in-command of the battalion, happened to be standing beside the 15th Scottish pipe major as the remnants of the weary battalion went by. Both men – the seasoned professional soldier and the youthful volunteer – were struck by the tragedy of the young lives wasted by war. “He was a big, tough ex-Scottish guardsman; I’ll never forget him. He was standing there in the moonlight, watching our companies come in, some of them with only ten or twenty men left. There were tears rolling down his cheeks and he turned to me, ‘Makes you fucking think, don’t it kid."
COCK O THE NORTH.GORDON HIGHLANDERS‏ - YouTube Here played by the Gordons Canadian Scottish Regiment‏ - YouTube
