Pipes and Drums continued as part of the 1st Battalion with members required to be fully-trained fighting soldiers as well as competent musicians. The Drum Major is carrying "Big Andy" the Regimental Mace (see the essay on Regimental Silver). Lieutenant A G Mackenzie-Kennedy, Adjutant inspecting the Royal Stuart tartan granted to the pipers as a personal distinction by HM King George V on the occasion of his visit for the Tercentenary, 19 April 1933. The Hunting Stuart lived on, however, in the The 52nd Lowland Brigade Band, which was formed in 1999 from the former Royal Scots Territorial Band which, until then, had carried on the long tradition of Volunteer or Territorial battalion bands since the mention of the Edinburgh Militia Band in 1809. By 1994 the strength of the band had fallen to only 15 and, on 15 March, as part of the Options for Change, it amalgamated with the Military Bands of the other Lowland Regiments to form a thirty-five strong staff band, The Lowland Band of The Scottish Division, which wore the Government Tartan. Thereafter the Band accompanied the 1st Battalion on many of its overseas tours, and exercises often serving operationally as infantrymen when required. By 1815 the 1st Battalion could produce twenty-two on parade although, by 1822, this was down to fifteen.īoth Regular bands were subsequently reformed but amalgamated, with their Battalions, in 1948. In 1809 the band of the 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve), then The Edinburgh Militia, consisted of five clarinets, two horns, one serpent (a bass wind instrument, usually classed as brass, and a distant musical relative to today’s tuba – but looking like a serpent!), six keyed flutes and three A fifes, bassoons etc, a total of seventeen instruments. This probably resulted from the Army Authorities by this time bowing to change and formally allowing enlisted soldiers from the ranks to be employed as musicians, thereby replacing the previously privately-funded funded civilians.
By 1776 a report refers to ‘8 private soldiers acting as musicians’, and bands grew rapidly from then for, by 1800, there was a complaint that the Bands were ‘too large’. The first reference to a military band is in General Dilkes’s inspection of the 1st Battalion at Dublin in 1767 when, in addition to mentioning the fifers, he referred to a ‘band of Musik’ The members of such a band at this time were civilian musicians engaged for the purpose, and paid by the Officers. While they were referred to in an inspection report of 1767, it was not until 1769 that they were officially added to The Royal Scots, two being attached to each of the Grenadier Companies. Certainly the painting of the destruction of the Mole at Tangier in 1684 shows four pipers on the Mole.Ībout the middle of the 18th Century, when the fife, as an instrument in military bands, had fallen more or less into disuse, the Duke of Cumberland began to interest himself in the improvement of regimental bands, and it was through his influence that measures were taken to have fifers placed on the establishment of each regiment or battalion. In 1679, having returned to England from France, the Regiment was reported to consist of twenty-one companies each of which had two drummers there was also a Drum Major and a Pipe Major, this latter suggesting the presence of pipers, perhaps drummers doubling-up. Contemporary reports from the 1630s mention a pipe band in Hepburn’s Regiment of some 36 musicians and refer also to ‘the Scotch March’ believed to be the forerunner of Dumbarton’s Drums, the Regimental Quick March, played later by the Pipe Band. In Scotland the bagpipes had for centuries been the mainstay of military music, particularly in the Highlands. Another invaluable source of information is The History of British Military Bands Volume II (Guards and Infantry) by Gordon and Alwyn Turner, published by Spellmount Publishers, whom we thank for their permission to draw heavily on their work.
Both Appendices can be requested, on payment of a small donation, from The Museum Office (contact details can be found in the Museum section).
For a more detailed study of the latter a student should consult the Records of The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) published in Dublin in 1915 and turn to Appendix 3, Regimental Music, compiled by A W Ingles, or Appendix 4, The Pipers of the Regiment. This short essay can only outline the story behind its development, concentrating on the Bands rather than the music they played. Regimental Music is a specialised and detailed subject with a history of its own. On 30th June, 1667 Samuel Pepys met Lord George Douglas in Rochester and mentions seeing his Regiment he records that “here in the streets I did hear the Scotch March beat by the drums before the soldiers, which is very odde.”
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