The most poignant pipes of all, borne by young hero of Somme
ARMED only with his trusty pipes, Private William Alexander Scott heroically went ‘over the top’ on the first day of the bloody Battle of the Somme.
And although he inspired comrades with his fearless actions, the young soldier was killed after making it to the German lines.
Now the pipes thought to have been carried by Private Scott on that infamous day, July 1, 1916, are expected to fetch £800 when they go under the hammer tomorrow.
The piper served with the 21st Battalion Tyneside Scottish, Northumberland Fusiliers.
Pipes later recovered at the battlefield were thought to have been those of Private Scott and were returned to his family.
The Tyneside Scottish suffered the worst losses of any brigade on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Between 2,288 and 2,438 men and all four battalion commanders died. Private Scott’s body was never found and his name was added to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.
The bagpipes, complete with their leather case, will be sold by auctioneer Lockdales of Ipswich, Suffolk, in an online sale.
Chris Elmy, of Lockdales, said: ‘The owner is a private collector who bought them from the Scott family. The bagpipes have never been up for auction before.
‘The family had always believed they belonged to a relative who was killed at the Somme.
‘It is believed the pipes were passed down from Alexander Scott, who was a piper with the Tyneside Scottish in the late 19th-early 20th century, to his son, William Alexander Scott, who also piped for the Tyneside Scottish and who was sadly killed in action on the first day of the Somme.
‘The fact that a set of damaged pipes was kept and treasured leads us strongly to believe they were recovered from the person of William Alexander Scott. Family tradition holds that they were his.’