‘WULL I GIE THEM WUND’: THE MEANING OF BAGPIPE MUSIC ON THE WESTERN FRONT
L. Rae Stauffer explores the cultural and symbolic significant of bagpipe music during the First World War, showing how the strains of pipe music not only served to comfort and inspire, but also helped sustain collective identities among soldiers.
When eighteenyear-old piper Jimmy Richardson asked his company sergeant-major ‘Wull I gie them wund?’, they were in the middle of trying to cross no-man’s-land during the battle of the Somme in October of 1916.They were hunkered down in a big shell hole, their major had just been killed, and the barbed wire in front and to the left of the battalion had not been cut. Sergeant Makie had asked Richardson why he was not playing his bagpipes and Richardson told him that Major Lynch had ordered him to be silent. Seeing the desperateness of the situation, Richardson knew that his fellow soldiers needed the inspiration and encouragement of the music and would be uplifted by the spirit of a song. Not all the men would see him play, but it was just as important that they would hear him play.The bagpipe music would be the wind at their backs and inspire them to push forward.
Piper Richardson played for ten minutes, marching up and down in front of the barbed wire while the two companies of 16th battalion got over the wire. His heroism earned him the Victoria Cross, but posthumously, as he was killed just a few hours later. The martial significance of the piper, and all that he symbolised to his fellow warriors, has been explored and recognised for more than 400 years, but what of the music? Can we understand the meaning of the bagpipe music to the soldiers of the First World War? These were men from different parts of the world, and from different classes, who shared a collective symbolic interpretation of the significance of the music. Using our understanding of symbolism and cultural history methodology the music of the pipes can be seen to unite those of differing cultures, both class and international, and to even cause a symbolic reaction to those on the opposing side.
Significance of past pipers
Exploring the significance of bagpipe music to, and on, the soldiers must recognise the intimate connection between the importance of the piper himself and what he symbolised to his fellow Scottish warriors.This was specific to the highland piper and his bagpipes – the great highland bagpipes, or piob mhòr. It is unknown, and still debated to this day, when and how bagpipes made their way to Scotland.
For more than a millennium the pipes have existed in various forms throughout the world. As the bardic tradition in Scotland changed and the use of the harp waned, the pipes continued in their use, and then became even more popular.They were played at weddings, festivals and dances, and laments were heard at funerals. The lowland burghs had burgh pipers to announce curfews and proclamations throughout the streets. Clan chiefs, like the MacLeods, had their clan piper (a McCrimmon) who enjoyed a high status within the clan, and travelled with his chief to battles and interclan feuds. As Brevet-Colonel Sir Bruce Seton and Pipe-Major John Grant put it in 1920, ‘the burgh piper was a man of peace; the clan piper was a man of war’. It was at these battles where the piper led his fellow highland warriors in the vanguard that the mythology and reputations of the piper and the highland soldier were established. They were both brave warriors and ferocious fighters; for when the piper could not play, the sword at his side was just as deadly as those of his fellow warriors. Scottish men also fought on the continent as mercenaries where their skills as fighters was much appreciated and sought-after.
The bagpipes began to be recognised
In 1746, after the defeat of the Jacobites at Culloden, the bagpipes were seen as a weapon of resistance
as a national symbol of Scotland. It became an integral part of Scottish life. Stories and myths of great heroism created a romanticised history, and the bagpipe tradition was aided by writers like SirWalter Scot and Robert Burns. In 1746, after the defeat of the Jacobites at Culloden, the bagpipes were seen as a weapon of resistance. One piper, James Reid, was hanged after the 1746 Disarming Act.The court atYork decided that even though James did not carry a sword, he did carry and play his bagpipes. Since it was known that no highland regiment ever marched to battle without a piper, whose playing was an inspiration to the fighters, the law decided that the bagpipes were an ‘instrument of war’. The piper along with his bagpipes has been acknowledged as occupying an important place in highland regiments almost from the very beginning.
Feeling the music
For the Scots, the piper and his pipes kept them connected with, or sometimes reconnected them to, their Scottish character and proud traditions. A columnist in the Aberdeen Daily Journal wrote in July 1919 that nobody could appreciate the piper like the Scots: ‘Here his music is felt, not heard’. It was one of the national symbols that helped define Scottish culture, Scots’ native land, and their Celtic past. And the varied cultural meanings and symbolic understandings of bagpipe music were rooted in the past.The highlanders had special names for different kinds of music, like the piobairachd (pronounced ‘piobroch’) the ‘great music’ or ‘classical reperoire’ which emerged in the 17th century. Its main classes are fàilte (welcome/salute), the cumha (Lament), the spaidsearachd (march) and the cruineachadh (gathering). The names evoked individualistic feelings, memories, meanings and emotions. The early Scots had words to describe the anticipation they felt, and which would be aided by the type of music the piper played, as they waited for the signal to charge forth. A quivering of valour was called crith gaisge and the joyous frenzy of battle, the exhilaration was called mir-cath, which was also the war cry or battle shout.
This past is where we can begin to see the effect that the music had on the Scottish imagination and the emotional attachment it evoked, and how the bagpipes became recognised
The stories of bravery of pipers, and the symbolic relevance and gravity of their individual and collective character, becomes intertwined with the music
and accepted throughout the world. Building on this evidence leads to uncovering how this Scottish cultural artefact became a shared symbol for allied troops, and why and how they understood this shared cultural perception.The stories of bravery of pipers, and the symbolic relevance and gravity of their individual and collective character, becomes intertwined with the music.The piper and the music he plays are not a separate entity, but then again, they must be seen that way in some instances.
Bagpipe music during World War I
By World War I, pipers had created their position in the military and they knew their importance. As a group, being a piper meant inspiring their fellow soldiers, leading by example, inspiring them to act and not to falter. With front lines stretching miles in each direction – 25 miles in the case of the Somme – not all could see the piper.The pipers felt it was their ‘proud post of honour’ to be in the vanguard and lead the men over the top of the trenches, but not all soldiers on the front would see this heroism.When the 1st Black Watch initiated a fresh attack on the German line at Rue des Bois on 9 May 1915, led by their pipers, only the music was evident as the pipers disappeared into the smoke. Piper Alexander McGillivray of the Canadian 16th battalion thought that if the men of his company clambered out of the trenches ahead of him during the battle of Passchendaele in August 1917 that the action would ‘bring disgrace on a Highland piper’. So, he scrambled out ahead of them and marched up and down in front of the companies of the 16th.Then he strode off down the line and played in front of the 13th battalion.They could not see him coming but when they heard the ‘skirl of the bagpipes’ the strain they felt being under heavy fire was lifted through the inspiration provided by McGillivray.
Being in the military, during peacetime but especially during war, soldiers created their own culture. They connected as a group, and gained strength from the bond they
formed with each other.They had their own rituals, superstitions, or good luck charms that would prove alien to an outsider. For their own protection they established a tribal mentality that shaped their behaviour and group identification. How the members of a group made sense of their surroundings was through this ‘shared culture of meaning’ and symbolism.To them the piper symbolised the myth of the historic Scottish warrior with all his fierceness and bravery.They saw the piper always leading, playing and marching seemingly without a care, as bullets whizzed by.
Soldiers and music
Soldiers became family.The piper was a part of that family, with a special role. Along with the piper and his bagpipes the music had a separate role of its own. Certain melodies were understood to be used at certain times and for certain situations.The music became embedded within the soldiers’ culture. ‘Day in day out, from morning to night, the soldier [was] dependent on the piper’.The day would start with reveille. Each regiment would have their own tunes like ‘Johnny Cope’ or ‘Bannocks O’ Barley’. For the Gordon Highlanders’ piper the morning tune was ‘The Greenwoodside’.They also called the men to meals, sick parade, call quarter, tea and last post, which was played at ten o’clock in the evening.The tune ‘Highland Laddie’ was played to warn the Royal Scots to dress for parade. In September 1916 the Canadian contingent were ‘roused’ out of their beds and boarded the Andania to ‘the skirl of the bagpipes’. The pipers also entertained the soldiers and provided music while the officers dined. Robert Burns stated in a letter to Dr Moore that the sound of the bagpipes had been used to rally men to the recruitment.The Manchester Evening News of 8 February 1915 supports this assertion, noting that Mr Harry Lauder had organised a group of pipers to tour around Scotland and aid in ‘stimulating recruiting’. And in December 1914 the Liverpool Scottish reported that the music of the pipers echoed up and down the promenade as the British men were trained for the war. All seemed to be indoctrinated with the martial sound of the bagpipes.
The mythical aura surrounding the pipers from years of persistent legends and stories had a profound effect on the soldiers when they heard the martial tunes.The responses were varied but they all had the same underlying significance.The music energised them and stirred their emotions, arousing a desire to share in the symbolism of the ancient Scottish warrior, and connecting to that glorious mythical past. Even the English soldiers said they ‘felt uplifted’ when the music of the pipe band led their regiment on their march and that they felt ‘unconscious of motion’. At the battle ofYpres, with the constant bombardment and with the introduction of gas, men hung back until two battalion pipers dropped the stretchers they were carrying, removed their masks, grabbed their pipes and played. One soldier in a regiment of the Glasgow Highlanders described a march that was so long that ‘walking had become a purely mechanical exercise’ until the pipes started up with ‘Highland Laddie’, their regimental song.The effect on the men was almost instant as the music was ‘something more potent than wine’.
It was not only the ordinary soldier who realised the music could inspire the comradery, self-esteem, pride and a sense of belonging needed to function in that wartime setting. Certain officers, like the commanding officer of the Canadian 16th battalion, Colonel W.W. Peck, who never went anywhere without his personal piper, focused on what was best for his men.This focus on his men revealed to him the influence that ‘stir[red] the blood’ – ‘the martial music of the bagpipes’. Even though criticised for this belief, and, as he said, with ‘no Scottish blood in my veins’, he encouraged the sentiments and traditions that epitomised bagpipe music. Not all were totally reconciled with volunteer pipers in the regiments, though. In 1852, Major-General J.E.C. Napier reported the irregularity of the 92nd regiment having pipers. But Napier found himself reprimanded by his commander-in-chief, the duke of Wellington, who wrote:
I am surprised that an officer who has seen, as you must have seen, the gallant deeds performed by the Highland regiments, in which their pipers played so important a part, should make such a report.
Back in India, in 1780, Sir Eyre Coote, who was commanding the 73rd battalion of the MacLeod Highlanders, had trouble seeing the use of having pipers along. He described them as a ‘useless relic of a barbarous age!’. Three years later at the battle of Port Novo, Coote saw the effectiveness of the music as it animated the 73rd battalion to fiercer fighting. Even when leaving the battlefield, the pipers and their music could stir the men to action.There is a story of one English
battalion that was so tired from fighting they lacked the motivation to get up and return to their billets. An officer was able to encourage some pipers to play and the music inspired the men to leave the front lines.
The above examples show that the symbolism of the bagpipe music, as understood in the soldier culture, was also understood by most of the officer corps, though sometimes they took longer to convince. Symbols can mean different things to different people, but the music of the bagpipes’ symbolic meaning was appreciated by the two separate cultures of class found in the military – non-commissioned officers and officers. In the Boer War, inspecting officer Major-General Browne, told the pipers to leave their
bagpipes behind.The order was obeyed, but when landing on the Cape, the officers sent home for new sets.The regular British officer did not always see the potential of the music as quickly as did others. For some commanding officers, the pipers in their battalions were only to play while on marches, and while going and coming back from the front, but not into action. Some did understand the importance of trying to replace fallen pipers and that is why they were held back from the front, while others still did not understand the importance of the piper and his music to their men.
Bagpipe music and the enemy
The allied pipers also had an effect across enemy lines. In 1915 Germany put out a commemorative medal which showed their awareness of the ‘Piper of Loos,’ piper Daniel Laidlaw. Laidlaw noticed that his company was unnerved by the gas that was coming back at them and that none of the soldiers were moving. He grabbed his pipes, mounted the parapet and marched back and forth while playing the men into the fight until he was wounded. On the coin was the likeness of Laidlaw as the ‘piper of death’ doing the ‘dance of death.’The Germans had been slow to realise ‘the military value of the piper’ but soon learned to link the pipes and their music to a certain type of fighting man – the dreaded Scots. Recognising the power of the music to inspire the men, the Germans began to try to take out all officers and pipers.They believed ‘taking them out meant taking out something spiritual’. Early in the battle of the Somme the tune ‘The Campbells are Coming’ was said to put terror in the German soldiers.
If the allied soldiers recognised and used to their advantage the symbolic image of the fierce and honourable Scottish warrior when they heard the music, then it is understandable that the enemy combatants might fear the music that symbolisd those men, especially when they had to face the Scottish troops.They witnessed the effect the music had on the attitudes and emotions of those they fought against and it made them afraid. The writer Clive Cussler states that his father, who was a soldier in the German army, remembered the ‘French as fighters, were second rate, English hard as bulldogs and Americans really ever ready to wrestle’. But ‘only when we heard the pipes of ‘those ones with the short skirt’ we took cold sweats and we understood that many of us will never go home for Christmas’. In late 1917 the Germans and Austrians were able to break through the defence lines of the Italians at Carso. Five British divisions were sent, but it was the Scottish soldiers that stood out to the Italians who ‘had never seen soldiers dressed with skirts’.
An interesting anecdote, relating to events after the war in 1919, seems to reaffirm the distaste the Germans had for pipe music.Two different American newspapers in May 1919 mentioned a lawsuit that was being
handled by the supreme court of New York. In the lawsuit, the complainants, named Lunglof, Graf, Goepper, Schmaltzer and Breitbeck, put forth the opinion that bagpipe music, played in a confined area, was more noise than music. It seems that the bagpipes had been played during rallies to sell war bonds and the music had ‘greatly stimulated local patriotism’.
Conclusion
The piper with his bagpipes has been understood for years to be a symbol of Scottish patriotism, fierce, a brave fighter, and a cultural icon. Seeing the piper on the frontlines of the First World War had the effect of energising the soldiers and lifting moral.When pipers like Richardson, McGillivray and Laidlaw jumped over the top of the trenches and played the pipes with no thought of their own mortality, they harkened back to the ancient warriors of Scotland’s mythology.There can be no doubt of the importance, to the men, of their company pipers.The music itself is all part of that martial symbolism. But it is also a symbol in its own right.The music embraced the life of all soldiers from the excitement of signing up to being laid to rest. Each battalion had its own song that would symbolise individuals’ affiliation with the group, and the group’s responsibilities to it members.The song bonded men to each other to create a unified fighting force, and invigorated them when their spirits flagged.When the fighting on the front lines stretched across miles the importance of the music and what it symbolised to the men is known to be entwined with the piper and the bagpipes, but it must be understood to also signify a meaning of its own.
In 1915 Germany put out a commemorative medal which showed their awareness of the ‘Piper of Loos,’ piper Daniel Laidlaw
L. Rae Stauffer is a graduate of the University of Lethbridge with two Masters, both with a focus on Scottish History – one from the University of Edinburgh and the second one from the University of Lethbridge.