LERWICK ROYAL BRITISH LEGION PIPE BAND

PIPING AND DRUMMING IN SHETLAND FROM THE UK'S MOST NORTHERLY PIPE BAND

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Our History...

                   Lerwick Royal British Legion Pipe Band was formally constituted by the Shetland Branch of the Legion following an initiative by its President, Lt. Col. Magnus Shearer. In 1933, he persuaded the local branch to make funds available for the purchase of uniforms and equipment.
 

 

   Previously, informal groupings of pipers would assemble on request to play at local, mainly Lerwick, events and parades. Indeed the first photographic record of such a parade is dated 1919 and shows three pipers marching behind the British Legion banner at the very first armistice parade through Lerwick which terminated at Victoria Pier.

  

 

 Above. Lerwick(BL) Pipe Band on the steps of the Bruce Hostel,Leriwick.
Back row(Left to right); Willie Cumming,Peter Newlands,Jimmy Jamieson,Freddie Clark.
Middle Row; Peter McKay,Jackie Henderson,Jim Rendal, Jeemie Gibbie Smith,
Bill Colie,Drew Robertson, Willie Birnie, Vivtor Spalding
Front Row;  Charlie Arthur  , Drum Major(JWP) Jeemie Angus, Magnie Shearer

  One of those pipers, Angus Clark, became the first Pipe Major of the Band – his son, Fred, would succeed him in that role some years later. Angus, a native of Strathpeffer, arrived in Shetland in 1906 – Shetland’s very first telephone engineer!  Andrew Wilson, an Edinburgh man, and manager of Lerwick’s municipal gasworks, was appointed Drum Major. The Band’s first official photograph shows a corps of ten pipers and five drummers. The Gordon tartan was chosen in recognition that Shetland was regarded as a “Gordon county” and there were a number of redundant regimental kilts and tunics donated to the newly formed band.



   Little is recorded of Band activities during World War II but the return home of servicemen at the end of hostilities marked the reappearance of the Band at all important public parades and events. Victor Spalding took over as Pipe Major immediately after the war and was succeeded by Peter Mackay, then Freddie Clark; Jim Angus was appointed Drum Major in 1949. Shetland’s contracting economy during the 1950s and 1960s witnessed the decline and demise of a number of community organisations including both the pipe and brass bands – the pipe band was wound up in the early 1960s at a time when there remained insufficient match-fit pipers to muster a parade corps.

 

Above.1953 or 54 in Gilbertson Park. The picture shows the LPB together with the Kirkwall   City Band playing at the annual Inter -County football match - a big event in those days!

  In 1983 former players, some of whom had returned to Shetland after years of exile, joined with enthusiastic incomers to reform the Band. Stuart McGregor, a recently demobilised Scots Guardsman, was formally appointed Pipe Major in 1984 after the Band had, with the generous assistance of the Highlands & Islands Development Board, been equipped with uniforms and drums - the Caledonia tartan was the popular choice for kilts. Stuart was succeeded by Kenny Watson, Leslie (Gussie) Angus, Archie MacArthur, Aileen Cartney  and, most recently, by Iain Morrison for the second time as Pipe Major. Drum Major, John Boxwell, still carries the handsome, silver-mounted mace presented to Jim Angus in 1949.

  

   More recently, In 1995, Lerwick Royal British Legion Pipe Band recorded its first CD at the CDS recording studio in Wethersta, Brae, Shetland, twenty members of the band crowded into a room not much larger than a static caravan for an arduous day recording tracks for the CD.  The band sold over 1000 CD's in total.  CD's can be purchased on the merchandise page.
 

 
 Above. Around 1986 at Clickimin Broch prior to the Bands 1st visit to Maaloy.


   Interestingly, close family ties to original Band members are to found amongst the existing playing strength. Peter MacKay's son, Donald, grandson, Peter, and three granddaughters, Donna, Amanda and Michelle; Iain Tulloch, Angus Clark’s grandson; Jim Angus’ son, Gussie.

                                              History written by Gussy Angus  

               More historic photos here

  In October 2002, Steven Guthrie a former piper took the Lerwick Pipe Band into cyberspace launching www.lerwickpipeband.com,     Steven maintained the site for two and a half years before handing it over, 5000 hits later toIain Morrison, who took has since taken the site into new dimensions by adding music downloads, with further evolvements in the pipeline.

 Tam Davison has written a good article on the history of the bagpipes.

 

 

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Page Updated: 04 February 2006.