Reader, Stewart Donaldson from Blairgowrie, Scotland sent us these photographs with a plea for information. He tells us the photographs were taken by Fred Oudney from Perthshire town who played in the local pipe band and also the Perth & District Pipe Band in the 1970s.
The photographs are part of a project on local history in Blairgowrie that Mr Oudney’s daughter is currently undertaking. We would be delighted to pass on any information readers are able to provide.
The first photograph, top, appears to show the pipes and drums of the 1st Batt. The Black Watch leading a small parade somewhere. Pipe Major James B. Anderson – ‘Big Ugg’ – BEM can just about be made out. Anderson, who was Pipe Major from 1959-1975, was one of the eight Black Watch pipers who played at the funeral of John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The next photograph, above, seems to show Pipe Major Iain MacLeod tuning the drones of an Edinburgh Police Pipe Band piper but we wonder where and when it was taken?
We are assured that the band on the left of the above photograph is Perth & District Pipe Band but we’re not sure the name of the band on the right. It looks to us that the photograph was taken in Perth as the cluster of houses in the background looks like the Bridgend art of the town and the river is clearly very wide in the photograph – as the Tay is at this point.
We are also assured that the fourth photograph, above, was taken at Newtonmore Highland Games possibly in the early 1950s. Are the bands army bands, we wonder? Mr Donaldson ponders whether one of the bands is the Aberfeldy Pipe Band but we’re not so sure.
Lastly, there is this photograph, left, of perhaps a solo piper but we can’t identify with certainly who this is nor wher eit was taken.
If anyone has any thoughts on these photographs please contact us in the usual way.