On many occasions when the choice of a tune has not been restricted by regimental custom or tradition, individual performers have made selections which indicated the remarkable mentality of the British soldier.
At Loos, where Pipers Simpson and M'Donald of the 2nd Black Watch played their company over the top and through the attack, the tune they commenced with was "Happy we've been a' thegither,"—only later changing into the ceremonial onset "Highland Laddie." To men in a trench who have suffered untold nerve strain waiting for Zero and who happen—as do most men in Highland regiments—to know one tune from another, no more appropriate combination of "onsets" could have been selected.
At Beaumont Hamel, when the 17th H.L.I. took the German trenches and had an opportunity of bombing out the occupants, Pipe Major Gilbert played another popular and very suitable tune, "The muckin' o' Geordie's Byre," and greatly encouraged the men in their task. This same tune has done duty on many similar occasions.
It was to "We'll tak the guid auld way" that the 16th Canadians attacked at Vimy, and many Cameron pipers have played the "Piobaireachd Dhomhnuill Duibh" in similar circumstances.
Another very favourite tune was "The Macgregor's Gathering" which was played with great effect in the capture of many villages during the Somme fighting.
A curious coincidence was the selection by the pipers of the 1st H.L.I. of "I'll gang nae mair tae yon toun" as they marched out of Marseilles on 1st November, 1914, on their way to the front. During the first six months they lost seven pipers killed, eight wounded and two taken prisoner, and the band ceased to exist.
"Baile Inneraora,"—otherwise "The Campbells are Coming"—was the tune to which the first Highland regiment of the Expeditionary Force, the 2nd Argylls, landed in France; from that time onward it has immortalised on every front, if that were necessary, the town of which Burns wrote:
"There's naething here but Highland pride
And Highland scab and hunger.