Iain Bell shares a composition from his tune book From Scots Borderer to Ulster Scot on Remembrance Sunday 2024. The tune was adopted by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in memory of Private Richard Maybin, a piper with the WW1 Canadian Expeditionary Force, who was killed in the lead up to the Somme 1916.
Words by Iain Bell
Private Richard Maybin was originally from Lisnamurrican, Broughshane, Co. Antrim in Northern Ireland but like many of his generation left and settled in Canada (Saskatoon). With the outbreak of the First World War, he enlisted in the 1st. Canadian Mounted Rifles at Manitoba as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
After landing in France on September 22, 1915, they soon found that the foul muddy conditions of the Western Front made their horses a hindrance and by January 1916 the Canadian Mounted Rifles, complete with pipes & drums were dismounted and re-organised as infantry. In the run up to the Somme offensive the Canadians entered battle at Mount Sorrel on June 2, 1916 and Pte. Maybin, aged 21, was killed that day.
Richard’s personal effects and his bagpipe were returned to his grieving mother, Margaret Maybin at Lisnamurrican where they lay concealed in a trunk in her attic for more than half a century before being re-discovered and restored by Harold Bennet of Carricklongfield, Dungannon.
In 2016, I was privileged to have this tune judged by the RSPBANI as the slow air to be presented to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, commemorating Pte. Maybin and those of his generation who never came home. The tune was given it’s first ever public airing by Pipe Major Ian Burrows who played it on Private Maybin’s own bagpipe.
Richard Maybin is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium and also at 1st Broughshane Presbyterian Church, where I’m humbled to note they have a framed copy of this slow air on display.
Iain Bell’s tune for Maybin can be found in his collection published in 2018 called From Scots Borderer to Ulster Scot.
