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They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Laurence Binyon
11
Remembrance Sunday on 11:43 - Nov 9 with 774 views
My grandad played the bagpipes, although his family always sent him into the countryside to practice, as he was self-taught.
[Post edited 9 Nov 2025 12:34]
A story I heard from a Brickie who had worked in Germany back in the day…
A cat would visit the house they were building,and one of the brickies would grab it,stick it’s tail in his mouth and when it cried he’d move its legs just like the bagpipes 😂
A story I heard from a Brickie who had worked in Germany back in the day…
A cat would visit the house they were building,and one of the brickies would grab it,stick it’s tail in his mouth and when it cried he’d move its legs just like the bagpipes 😂
Interestingly, my grandad was once on the ITV version of Look South back in the late 60s because a bagpiper in a kilt on the Isle of Wight was a bit out of the ordinary.
In those days things went out live, and just as my grandad started to play for the cameras, he suddenly stopped. The interviewer asked him what had happened, and he said he thought his bag had burst thus preventing him playing further and so rather defeating the object of the item.
On his retirement from the show, Fred Dineage played the clip and said the clip about what he called "the Scotsman with the hopeless bagpipes" was probably his favourite ever clip.
My grandad had died by then but my mother and I and the rest of his family took what he said in good sprit. I'm sure my grandad would have done too.
My mother's sister managed to record the clip from the farewell show for Fred Dineage, and it was nice to see a video of my grandad some 40 odd years after he died.
[Post edited 9 Nov 2025 15:26]
1
Remembrance Sunday on 14:44 - Nov 9 with 525 views
Not a fan of the bagpipes as a rule, but when you hear piper(s) playing ‘Flowers of the Forest’ if you are not moved by it you’ve probably died.
Yes, that was played at the end of Prince Philips' funeral and was particularly poignant as the piper marched into the distance.
And at the Queen's funeral, her personal piper, Pipe Major Paul Burns, who woke her each morning by playing the bagpipes outside her window, played the Gaelic bagpipe lament "Sleep, Dearie, Sleep", following the old tradition of walking away as a symbol of 'escorting the soul to heaven', which marked the end of the ceremony.
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