Heroic piper who sounded Somme charge ... at age of 55
IT was a brutal conflict which saw hundreds of thousands of young British soldiers sent to their deaths.
But now the remarkable story of one of the oldest soldiers to serve during WWI has been revealed, after his family put his medals up for sale.
Scottish Pipe-Major Thomas Aitken was 55 years old when he sounded the charge during the Battle of the Somme.
The average age of those who fought during the 1914-18 conflict was around 25.
He was wounded three times on one day at Longueval in July 1916 as he inspired his regiment.
The piper, from Perth, braved a barrage of enemy fire and relayed messages for his commanding officer. Pipe-Major Aitken, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, started his military career 37 years earlier as a teenager in 1879. In 1882, he sounded the Highland Brigade charge at the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt in the North African desert.
Pipe-Major Aitken also served in the Boer War before finding himself in the thick of the action on the Western Front.
A fellow soldier said of his role at the Somme: ‘In the middle of it all the pipes struck up The Campbells are Coming and that made victory a certainty for us.’
Pipe-Major Aitken’s war diary reveals he was hospitalised in July 1916 and was discharged from the Army in 1917.
He was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal [DCM] for gallantry. His citation states: ‘He has performed consistent good work throughout, and has at all times under fire set a splendid example of coolness and courage.’ PipeMajor Aitken died aged 83 in 1944. His medals are tipped to fetch £8,000 at London-based auctioneers Spink & Son.
The firm’s medals specialist Robert Wilde-Evans said: ‘There cannot have been many men of his age, position and experience in the front lines during those dark days; it is humbling to reflect on what he experienced during his astonishing military career.’ The timed auction ends on Tuesday.