Tag: Oban Times

Piping 100 years ago: 1923 part four

Piping 100 years ago: 1923 part four

September of 1923 was an eventful month for piping. The King and Queen attended the Braemar Gathering and lords, ladies and gentlemen turned out in their finery at the Aboyne Games. The senior competitions at the Argyllshire Gathering were contested by Robert Reid, GS McLennan and Willie Ross and produced […]

Piping 100 years ago: 1923 part three

Piping 100 years ago: 1923 part three

The third part of Jeannie Campbell’s 1923 retrospective gives the lists of bands at the Cowal Games and all the solo and pipe band results from the competitions in August. The solo results has GS McLennan, John MacDonald of Inverness, PM Willie Ross and Robert Reid featuring in the prize […]

Piping 100 years ago: 1923 part two

Piping 100 years ago: 1923 part two

The second part of Jeannie Campbell’s 1923 retrospective looks at the early summer months and finds reports on pipe band competitions and solo piping results from around the Games. There are also reports on two pipe bands from Inveraray; PM Willie Ross’s three-week visit to South Uist for piping tuition […]

Piping 100 years ago: 1923 part one

Piping 100 years ago: 1923 part one

By JEANNIE CAMPBELL MBE • PART 1 • JAN to APRIL 1923 Looking back one hundred years to 1923 shows that some events were similar to those of today but there were many differences. In 1923 the piping world had to rely on word of mouth or the newspapers to […]

Famous pipers: J. D. Ross Watt

Famous pipers: J. D. Ross Watt

By Stephen Beattie James Downie Watt was born on June 10, 1869 in Leamington, Warwickshire, England and raised by his parents, John Ross Watt and Jane Warden Ritchie, both of whom hailed from Scotland. James – J. D. – was one of 10 children, three of whom died in infancy. […]

The Simon Fraser letters 8

The Simon Fraser letters 8

From The International Piper, October 1981. ‘Gesto and Canntaireachd’ 6 Vernier Street, South Geelong,Melbourne, Australia, 7th Dec. 1914. Sir, In enclosing my annual subscription for ‘The Oban Times,’ permit me to say that I always find your valuable paper very interesting, and the account of the War news is excellent. […]

The Simon Fraser letters 6

The Simon Fraser letters 6

June 29, 1912,‘The Secrets of Canntaireachd”21 Clarendon Crescent, Edinburgh,June 23, 1912. K. N. MacDonald’s reply to J. Grant Says in a ps, “A Dr. Ross from South Africa has just written to me expressing the interest that all out there take in the discussion that is going on in ‘The […]

The Simon Fraser letters 3

The Simon Fraser letters 3

From The International Piper, February 1981 Simon Fraser’s next contribution to the Oban Times is dated May 28, 1910 and September 3, 1910. Sir, In your valuable paper dated March 5, 1910, I notice a letter signed “John Maclennan,” in which he is criticising the books of the Piobaireachd Society. […]

Who was Simon Fraser?

Who was Simon Fraser?

We have uploaded some letters that will interest the ceòl mòr enthusiast. The letters were published in The International Piper over several months in 1980 and 1981 and are correspondence between Simon Fraser (1844-1934) and others. Simon Fraser was a pupil of Peter Bruce, Glenelg, who in turn was a […]