Pipers were also employed as observers, messengers, scouts, etc.
2nd Battalion
The 2nd battalion took part in the original fighting of the war. During the retirement from Mons the pipers were chiefly employed as despatch-runners and orderlies. They went out with 16 pipers and lost 6 during the first few weeks. Four pipers, including Pipe Major Duff, were taken prisoner at Audincourt on 26th August, 1914.
During the Somme fighting they were employed as stretcher-bearers and suffered severe casualties. On one occasion they did invaluable service in bringing water up to the battalion. At Ypres in September, 1916, the pipers were carrying barbed wire up to the front when a shell wounded three. After that the band was withdrawn from the front line and employed in playing the battalion to and from the trenches. By the end of 1918 there had been 7 pipers killed, 16 wounded and 4 taken prisoner, and, to quote the pipe major, "I have seen 3 bands disappear and the fourth is now on German soil."
Apart from the difficulty of replacement of casualties one of the reasons why pipers were not used in attacks was because it was felt "when the men heard the pipes they would lose control of themselves and, in their eagerness to get forward would be apt to rush into their own barrage."
| REG. NO. RANK. | NAME. | RECORD. | |
| 8696 | Pipe Major | J. Duff | Wounded, taken prisoner, Audincourt, 26/8/14. |
| 5815 | Pipe Major | J. A. Dunbar | |
| 9357 | Lance-Cpl. | G. M'Donald | Wounded, taken prisoner, Audincourt, 26/8/14. |
| 325127 | Corpl. | J. MacKay | Wounded, 23/11/17. |
| 10535 | Piper | D. Wheelan | Wounded, taken prisoner, Audincourt. |
| 9865 | " | A. Smart | Wounded, taken prisoner, Audincourt. |
| 9867 | Lance Cpl. | Groves | Wounded, Kemmel, Nov. 1914. |
| 11161 | Piper | J. Steele | Wounded, Kemmel, Nov. 1914. |
| 9356 | Piper | J. Hunter | Wounded, Ypres, 28/5/15. |
| 10541 | " | F. M'Ewan | Wounded, 23/5/15, 12/4/18, 8/10/18. |
| 11065 | " | H. M'Leod | Recommended for D.C.M.; wounded, Ypres, 28/5/15. |
| 11484 | " | D. Lindsay | Killed, 4/5/17. |
| " | A. Mackinlay | Killed, 9/4/18. | |
| 4918 | " | A. Cruickshanks | Killed, 27/9/18. |
| 9356 | " | R. Hunter | Wounded, 23/5/15. |
| 13459 | " | William Fisher | Wounded, Loos, 25/9/15; killed, 15/4/16. |
| 250240 | " | William Black | Wounded, 12/11/17. |
| 8516 | " | J. Robertson | Killed, Croix Barbes, 13/10/14. |
| 325547 | " | R. Robertson | Wounded, 9/4/18. |
| 8450 | " | J. Drummond | Killed, The Bluff, 23/1/16. |
| 8906 | " | J. Henry | Wounded, Somme, 13/7/16. |
| 9787 | " | J. Youngson | Wounded, The Bluff, 4/3/16. |
| 9061 | " | J. Johnston | Wounded, 13/9/14. |
| 7929 | " | J. Anderson | Wounded, Kemmel, April, 1915. |
| 3190 | " | J. Thompson | Died, 30/8/15. |
| 10536 | " | E. Duguid | Killed (gas), 10/5/18. |
| 270014 | " | J. Sinclair | Wounded, 9/4/17. |
| 32553 | " | W. Hutcheson | Wounded, 26/3/18. |
| 11613 | " | A. Macdonald | Wounded, 12/4/18. |
| 8899 | " | R. Scholes | |
| 10178 | " | J. Scott | |
| 11486 | " | J. Clark | |
| 270037 | " | J. Paul | |
| 270045 | " | A. Stocks | |
| 325080 | " | R. Johnstone | |
| 250240 | " | W. Black | |
| 270821 | " | D. Shane | |
| 11437 | Lance Cpl. | A. Swinney | |
4th Battalion (Queen's Edinburgh Rifles)