THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS
1st Battalion
The battalion took out 18 pipers, and at the roll call at Cambrai on 26th August, 1914, only two remained. For a long time pipers had to be employed in the ranks. On several occasions in the Somme fighting they took their place at the head of their companies and played them into action.
2nd Battalion
This battalion took 32 pipers out to France; by the end of the first year of the campaign 10 had been killed and 20 wounded. At Loos and in the Somme fighting the pipers of the 2nd Gordons repeatedly played the battalion into action and suffered heavily. The pipers were also employed as runners, bearers, etc., and in the ranks.
In March 1915, the battalion was played to the attack on the Aubers Ridge under heavy fire, and again at Mametz and Guichy.
In the Italian field of operations they did most excellent work in getting the wounded back across a swift river, work which their C.O. considered it would have been impossible to accomplish without their enthusiastic assistance.
4th Battalion
During the trench fighting the pipers were mostly used behind the front line, and in marching the battalion to and from rest billets. Subsequently, in open fighting, the company pipers took their place at the heads of their companies. At the Marne, Pipers P. Paterson, R. Prentice, P. Bowie and G. Davidson played their companies into action, and their action immensely stimulated the troops "and enabled them to gain a great victory on that day"; at Ypres on 31st July, 1917, Piper P. Bowie "rallied the men at a time when fighting was very fierce," and was awarded the Military Medal; on 17th November, 1917, Piper G. Paterson also got the Military Medal for playing the battalion through three successive charges and into Cantaing under heavy fire. The pipers were also employed as ammunition carriers.
| REG. NO. RANK. | NAME. | RECORD. | |
| Pipe Major | A. Chisholm | ||
| 201290 | Piper | John Webster, M.M. | Military Medal. |
| Lance-Cpl. | W. Cruickshank | ||
| Piper | T. Watson | Invalided. | |
| 200347 | " | G. Paterson, M.M. | Wounded; Military Medal. |
| " | N. Paterson | ||
| " | W. M'Kay | Invalided. | |
| " | E. Ewen | Wounded. | |
| " | P. Paterson | Wounded. | |
| " | D. Robbie | Wounded (twice). | |
| " | G. Davidson | Gassed, Ypres, 31/10/17. | |
| " | J. Wych | Prisoner. | |
| " | C. Lawson | Prisoner. | |
| " | J. Gray | ||
| " | J. Gray | Wounded. | |
| " | R. Sim | Wounded. | |
| " | P. Bowie, M.M. | Military Medal. | |
| " | E. Mather | ||
| " | R. Prentice | ||
| " | J. Oswald | ||
| " | F. Wright | ||
| " | J. Foote | ||
| " | A. Thomson | Killed. | |
5th Battalion
The pipers were principally employed in the ranks and as observers, but in the attack on High Wood on the Somme front company pipers played at the head of their units. On this occasion Piper Willox was killed as he led his company, and several others became casualties. It was thereafter decided not to employ pipers in action again.
6th Battalion
At Neuve Chapelle the pipers headed the charge of the battalion on the Moulin du Piètre, losing one piper killed and four wounded.
Pipers were mostly employed in action as stretcher bearers or in the ranks, and, while suffering heavily, won the highest reputation in their battalion. At Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 they lost one killed and six wounded; on this occasion Pipe Major Howarth won the D.C.M. At Loos in the following September, the casualties were again heavy, and the pipe major won a bar to the D.C.M. In later operations pipers were kept, as much as possible, out of the front line.
| REG. NO. RANK. | NAME. | RECORD. | |
| 10115 | Pipe Major | J. Howarth, D.C.M. and Bar | Wounded, Loos, 25/9/15. |
| 161 | Corpl. | G. Logie | Wounded, Neuve Chapelle, 25/3/15. |
| 728 | Piper | A. Smith | Wounded, Neuve Chapelle, 25/3/15. |
| 62 | " | G. Milton | Killed, Neuve Chapelle, 25/3/15. |
| 1257 | Lance-Cpl. | G. M'Pherson | |
| 104 | Piper | A. Coutts | Wounded, Neuve Chapelle, 25/3/15. |
| 117 | " | G. Grant | Wounded, Neuve Chapelle, 25/3/15. |
| 10604 | " | A. Milne | |
| 967 | Lance-Cpl. | J. Birnie | |
| 10700 | Piper | W. Bannerman | |
| 806 | " | R. Scott | |
| 961 | " | J. Birnie | |
| 1561 | " | R. M'Cay | Wounded, Festubert. |
| " | H. Davidson | Wounded, Loos, 25/9/15. | |
| Lance-Cpl. | T. Knowles | ||
8th Battalion
| REG. NO. RANK. | NAME. | RECORD. | |
| Pipe Major | W. J. Grant | Wounded. | |
| Corpl. | G. Flockhart | ||
9th Battalion
The great value of the pipers in action is recognised by the whole battalion, but it is considered it sometimes happens that the men get so overkeen under the influence of the music that they are liable to exceed orders. The employment of pipers as bearers, etc., is deprecated as resulting in casualties which cannot be replaced.
| REG. NO. RANK. | NAME. | RECORD. | |
| Pipe Major | K. MacLeod | Invalided, Dec. 1914. | |
| S/7747 | " | G. Findlater, V.C. | Invalided, Dec. 1915. |
| S/4212 | " | D. MacLeod | |
| S/6827 | Piper | A. M'Donald | |
| S/2772 | " | M. Murray | |
| S/9023 | " | C. Campbell | Killed in action, Somme, 10/7/16. |
| S/3068 | " | T. Turner | Invalided. |
| S/4057 | " | J. Miller | |
| S/4058 | " | H. Heeps | |
| S/4560 | " | J. Craig | Wounded, Somme, 1916. |
| S/9364 | " | J. Aitken | |
| 348 | " | J. M'Donald | Wounded, Neuve Chapelle, 1915; Loos, 25/9/15; Somme, 1/7/16. |
| 560 | " | W. Watt | Wounded, Ypres, 1914. |
| S/17640 | " | H. Maclachlan | |
| 9283 | Lance-Cpl. | H. Adams | Wounded, Ypres, 1914. |
| S/3052 | Pte. | J. Sharkey | |
10th Battalion
| REG. NO. RANK. | NAME. | RECORD. | |
| Pipe Major | Horne | ||
| Corpl. | Orchard | Wounded. | |
| 5614 | Piper | James Ritchie, M.M. | Transferred to 2nd Gordons; Military Medal. |