Pipe Major Willie Lawrie
Like Fathers Like Sons
by Norman Y. Williams
“Glencoe”, an evocative name if ever there was, and one which conjures up such contrasts as man’s inhumanity to man, and awe inspiring scenery which must surely rank alongside the finest in the world.
On a Saturday afternoon in June we were happily ensconced on the rocky summit of Shur na Coche (alias the Pap of Glencoe) savouring the magnificent surroundings. Almost inevitably the classic 2/4 march bearing the name of that miniature mountain sprang to mind.
In full view some 3 miles to the west and almost 2,500 feet below lay Ballachulish and it suddenly dawned, adding spice to the occasion, that this was the birthplace and home not only of the composer of the tune, but of a remarkable family of composers spanning three generations.
The first of these, the renowned Pipe Major Willie Lawrie, was born in 1881, and started to learn pipes at the age of seven under the guidance of his father Hugh. When his obvious talent became apparent he was sent for full formal instruction to that master piper of Oban, John MacColl. A dedicated and enthusiastic pupil, his long hours of hard graft and practice, combined with his natural ability, paid off and he became a very successful and highly respected competitor at all the principal Highland Gatherings. He took top honours at both the Argyllshire Gathering (Oban) and the Northern Meeting (Inverness) in 1910, and in the following year again at Inverness he set a record which stands to this day by lifting all the first prizes including the Clasp for Former Gold Medal Winners. Among his adversaries were such notables as John McDonald and P/M G. S. McLennan of the Gordon Highlanders, composer of the reel “Mrs A. MacPherson of Inveran” and the “Jig of Slurs”. He could also number P/M Willie Ross amongst his very good friends and the fact that he was personal piper to both the Earl of Dunmore and Colonel McDougall of Lunga was a clear indication of the esteem in which he was held.
WW1 – P/M Willie Lawrie - The 8th Argyll’s
In 1912, after a period with the Ballachulish Volunteers, came the crowning accolade, he was appointed Pipe Major of the 1st/8th Battalion of his county Regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
At the outbreak of WW1 P/M Willie Lawrie was among the first to volunteer for active service and following a period of training at Bedford, in England, he went to France with the 8th Argyll’s. The appalling conditions of trench warfare, combined with prolonged piping on long marches, took their toll. He became seriously ill and was returned to England where after a few months, despite valiant efforts by medical staff, he died in an Oxford Hospital at the age of only 35, sending a shock wave of sorrow through the piping world both at home and abroad.
But all was not lost, the proverbial “silver lining” was there – a legacy of some of the finest pipe marches to come from any source, tunes which are appreciated all the more as time passes and which will be around longer than any of us. His aforementioned “Pap of Glencoe” is a swinging march – one of my personal favourites and I understand the composer’s favourite from among his own tunes. Apparently the inspiration came to him during a walk with a friend from Ballachulish to Glencoe, with the “Pap” lying dead ahead. This is a tune in a class of its own, very well structured but with a remarkable simplicity.
Pipe Major Lawrie’s love of his home environment and the fold associated with it is demonstrated in the titles of some of his favourite compositions. “The Braes of Brecklet” – which rose behind his home, “John MacDonald of Glencoe”, “Mrs H. L. MacDonald of Dunach” – great marches. And the good original strathspey “Inveraray Castle” which was brought to the fore by Glasgow City Police Pipe Band in the late ‘40’s. In contrast to the above “dignified” competition type marches a number of compositions written during his service with the Argyll’s were of necessity more in a retreat and quickstep march mould, but still very musical and with the same enduring quality.
In addition to his piping and composing abilities, P/M Willie Lawrie was also a good teacher, and for a number of years during the summer he would spend a couple of months on the Islands instructing in his art under the auspices if the Piobaireachd Society. He had a well developed, almost philosophical dense of humour which came to the fore on one occasion after a court martial when he led the Battalion off the parade ground to “A Man’s a Man for a’ That”.
To those who knew P/M Lawrie he was also a great gentlemen. Those of us not so fortunate will remember him for his great music.
WW2 – Ian Lawrie - Capture at St Valery-en-Caux
He was survived by his wife and three children, the youngest of whom was the late Ian Lawrie, who, although perhaps less well known was to follow a path remarkably similar to that of his father. Born in the Loanfern area of Ballachulish in 1913 he was only 3 years old when his father died. Like his dad he started to learn the pipes when very young, with one of his uncles as tutor, and when old enough joined the 8th Argyll’s (T.A.) where he came into contact with Nicol MacCallum and brother, the late P/M Ronnie MacCallum of Inveraray. These two gentlemen were to have a considerable influence on his piping progress to the extent that he won the Argyll Junior Piper’s Cup for 3 consecutive years in the late 1920’s. He continued as a keen and very active piper and then on the outbreak of WW2 in 1939 history repeated itself and Ian, just as his father had done, served with the 8th Argyll’s in France under the command of Brigadier Lorne V.C. A fine 2/4 march bearing this officer’s name was composed in his honour by Angus McPherson of Inveran.
In 1940 when the British Expeditionary Force was surrounded at St Valery-en-Caux, Ian along with thousands of other men of the 51st Highland Division was captured and spend the rest of the war in a German P.O.W. camp. To add insult to injury all musical instruments, including the bagpipes, were confiscated or destroyed by the German authorities. However after a time one can only presume that the regulations were relaxed slightly because somehow or other a piano accordion materialised. Needless to say, this was a great morale booster for Ian who set to and taught himself to play it to a very acceptable standard.
By sheer coincidence a fellow prisoner was none other than the late Jimmy McFarlane, who was later to become fiddler and whistle player with the Jim MacLeod Band. Needless to say jimmy and Ian had some good wee tunes together.
After his “demob” the Ballachulish piper/accordionist returned home and remained an active member of the Kinlochleven Pipe Band until 1954, when he was forced to give up playing through ill-health, a direct result of the privations of the P.O.W. camps. But his interest in the pipes never waned and he channelled his energies into composing for the instrument. Of his many fine tunes, about fifteen have been saved for posterity of which only four have so far been published. Out of these four, the calibre of compositions like the jig “The Three Sisters of Glencoe” and “Mo Cailleag Fhein” (My Own Lass) – recorded several years ago by Jimmy Blue and his Band – show that Ian inherited his father’s talents to a marked degree.
Sadly he died on 28th January of this year (1987), but, as with P/M Willie Lawrie, he will not be forgotten.
The Box Player – Willie Jnr
The playing and composing achievements of these two men isn’t the end of the story however. Talents not infrequently show up in two generations but then more often than not skip one or more and appear later in the line, but in the Lawrie family they refused to sidestep and made it three in a row, a far rarer occurrence. Willie Lawrie Jnr arrived on the scene in Ballachulish, as did his two forbearers, in 1947. but now a slight deviation from precedent – he did not take up the pipes at a tender age, or if he did he must have laid them down again, but instead, at the age of eleven, he had a shot at his father’s pre-war Hohner accordion and was bitten. Self taught and a devotee of Bobby MacLeod, he graduated to playing for Scottish Country Dance classes in both Ballachulish and Kinlochleven, and in his mid-teens took the next logical step, viz. playing with a local band led by Charlie Campbell, and accordionist/saxophonist.
Having served his “apprenticeship” with this great group for six or seven years, and playing for dancing throughout the West of Scotland, Willie got a transfer to the well known Fergie MacDonald’s Highland Band in 1969, staying with them for four years, during which time the band recorded 2 L.P.s including solo tracts by Willie. One of the highlights of his association with Fergie was a trip to Copenhagen to play at a St Andrew’s Night Ball.
A chance to broaden his experience still further came in 1973 when he teamed up with Angus Grant, the left-handed fiddler from Caol near Fort William, to do mainly cabaret work in local hotels.
Throughout the late ‘70s and early ‘80s Willie concentrated more on solo playing broken by the odd “local” gig (using a scratch band) such as the St Andrew’s night dances on two occasions organised by the Caledonian Society of France.
In 1985 he invited two Fort William players, John Cameron (piano) and John McIntyre (bass), to join him, and as the Willie Lawrie Trio they entertained at several Accordion Clubs including the Premier Club of Northern Ireland.
But to get back on course, like his father and grandfather before him, Willie Jnr has a strong competitive urge, but it lay dormant until he was twenty years old. All it needed was something to spark it off. One evening in 1967 at a Scottish Country Dance Rally in the Corran Halls in Oban, the double bass player in the band was Duncan Campbell. Duncan is, of course, a tremendous enthusiast and a very active member of the Oban Festival Committee, and he it was who talked Willie into having a go and, as we all know, he has been hooked ever since. Incidentally, the fiddler in the band at that 1967 Corran Halls function was none other than Charlie Hunter, the father of bandleader Alasdair.
From first hand experience I can vouch for the fact that Willie is the perfect competitor. He doesn’t get upset if he disagrees with the adjudication, he is the first to congratulate successful competitors, and he is always on time to play in his allotted position. For twenty years he has staunchly supported over a wide area by entering the Senior Traditional Sections without fail. And this coming October he will be able to compete in the veterans (over 40) class at Perth. I know he is going to enter. He has a string of successes too numerous to catalogue here, with wins at Blairgowrie, Kinross, Oban and Perth to name but a few. In 1978 he was runner-up at Perth and third in the same section in1986, a performance which I would personally say was one of Willie’s greatest achievements in competition, playing flawlessly in the finals in a field of players mostly less than half his age and all with 10 fingers on each hand. A truly remarkable effort.
Still right on course in the true Lawrie tradition, at the age of fifteen Willie discovered the need to express himself in the dots – his natural composing talents had surfaced. He is a prolific composer, even more so than his predecessors. Quantity does not always ensure quality but in Willie’s case the majority of his tunes are good or very good. He has just got “it” – simple as that. His success in the Own Composition section at Perth speaks for itself – a record five times winner of the Jimmy Blue Trophy.
His tune titles reflect his interest in the folk around him, and his regard for fellow musicians, composers and other enthusiasts. Good examples are “Duncan Campbell of Oban” – a truly excellent tune in two flats – and “Willie Lawrie’s Compliments to Iain Peterson”. Willie has a great admiration for the younger generation of players – “Our music is safe in their hands” he stresses. Tunes such as “Deirdre’s Fancy”, “Kathleen Ann Black” and “Jennifer Forrest” back up this assertion. His respect for the older generation is manifested in such offerings as “The Mickie Ainsworth Polka” and “Willie Lawrie’s Compliments to Fraser McGlynn”!
In addition to a number of tunes appearing in earlier publications, more than thirty of Willie’s compositions are contained in a recently issued book “The Lochaber Collection”, hopefully the forerunner of more. There are so many others to come to light.
It is interesting to reflect on the fact that many of our best composers live either in rural environments, work in the open air, or have a great love of the outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
Why should this be? Your guess is as good as mine – some say they are inspired by the sounds and smells of nature. I wonder – birdsong – yes, flowers - yes, but the sound of a Force 10 gale and battering rain are not the most musical of sounds, and the aura of pig manure being broadcast over the countryside cannot quite match honeysuckle or Chanel No. 5. No, I think it must be the unpolluted (in the widest possible sense) surroundings and the freedom from so-called civilisation which leaves the brain uncluttered and capable of producing greater things.
For the record, the daily occupations of the Lawrie trio of composers in chronological order were slate quarryman, slate quarryman/forestry worker, and lastly Willie Jnr is furnaceman with “Alcan” in Kinlochleven where he now lives with his wife Cheryl and daughter Heather. Cheryl is not a musician, but is a keen Scottish Country Dancer and it was through this interest that she met her man. Heather is neither a piper nor accordionist, but plays recorder.
In conclusion, one thing is for sure. The remarkable Lawrie family will live on through their music. Like Fathers Like Sons.
Compositions of Pipe Major Willie Lawrie
2/4 Marches :-
The Braes of Brecklet
John MacColl’s March to Kilbowie Cottage
Mrs H. L. MacDonald of Dunach
John MacDonald of Glencoe
Captain Carswell
George Ross’s Farewell to the Black Watch
The Pap of Glencoe
4/4 Marches :-
The 8th Argyll’s Farewell to the 116th Regiment de Ligne (or The 8th Argyll’s Farewell to Bousincourt)
The Cellars of Authuille
Colonel Baird
Retreat March :-
The 8th Argyll’s
Strathspeys :-
Inveraray Castle, Kilberry
Reel :-
Clacklarick (Henderson’s Stone, Glencoe)
N.B. – the above is by no means an exhaustive list. P/M/ Lawrie also composed piobaireachds, his “Lament for the Late Lord Archibald Campbell” being but one example.
Box and Fiddle
October 1987
On a Saturday afternoon in June we were happily ensconced on the rocky summit of Shur na Coche (alias the Pap of Glencoe) savouring the magnificent surroundings. Almost inevitably the classic 2/4 march bearing the name of that miniature mountain sprang to mind.
In full view some 3 miles to the west and almost 2,500 feet below lay Ballachulish and it suddenly dawned, adding spice to the occasion, that this was the birthplace and home not only of the composer of the tune, but of a remarkable family of composers spanning three generations.
The first of these, the renowned Pipe Major Willie Lawrie, was born in 1881, and started to learn pipes at the age of seven under the guidance of his father Hugh. When his obvious talent became apparent he was sent for full formal instruction to that master piper of Oban, John MacColl. A dedicated and enthusiastic pupil, his long hours of hard graft and practice, combined with his natural ability, paid off and he became a very successful and highly respected competitor at all the principal Highland Gatherings. He took top honours at both the Argyllshire Gathering (Oban) and the Northern Meeting (Inverness) in 1910, and in the following year again at Inverness he set a record which stands to this day by lifting all the first prizes including the Clasp for Former Gold Medal Winners. Among his adversaries were such notables as John McDonald and P/M G. S. McLennan of the Gordon Highlanders, composer of the reel “Mrs A. MacPherson of Inveran” and the “Jig of Slurs”. He could also number P/M Willie Ross amongst his very good friends and the fact that he was personal piper to both the Earl of Dunmore and Colonel McDougall of Lunga was a clear indication of the esteem in which he was held.
WW1 – P/M Willie Lawrie - The 8th Argyll’s
In 1912, after a period with the Ballachulish Volunteers, came the crowning accolade, he was appointed Pipe Major of the 1st/8th Battalion of his county Regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
At the outbreak of WW1 P/M Willie Lawrie was among the first to volunteer for active service and following a period of training at Bedford, in England, he went to France with the 8th Argyll’s. The appalling conditions of trench warfare, combined with prolonged piping on long marches, took their toll. He became seriously ill and was returned to England where after a few months, despite valiant efforts by medical staff, he died in an Oxford Hospital at the age of only 35, sending a shock wave of sorrow through the piping world both at home and abroad.
But all was not lost, the proverbial “silver lining” was there – a legacy of some of the finest pipe marches to come from any source, tunes which are appreciated all the more as time passes and which will be around longer than any of us. His aforementioned “Pap of Glencoe” is a swinging march – one of my personal favourites and I understand the composer’s favourite from among his own tunes. Apparently the inspiration came to him during a walk with a friend from Ballachulish to Glencoe, with the “Pap” lying dead ahead. This is a tune in a class of its own, very well structured but with a remarkable simplicity.
Pipe Major Lawrie’s love of his home environment and the fold associated with it is demonstrated in the titles of some of his favourite compositions. “The Braes of Brecklet” – which rose behind his home, “John MacDonald of Glencoe”, “Mrs H. L. MacDonald of Dunach” – great marches. And the good original strathspey “Inveraray Castle” which was brought to the fore by Glasgow City Police Pipe Band in the late ‘40’s. In contrast to the above “dignified” competition type marches a number of compositions written during his service with the Argyll’s were of necessity more in a retreat and quickstep march mould, but still very musical and with the same enduring quality.
In addition to his piping and composing abilities, P/M Willie Lawrie was also a good teacher, and for a number of years during the summer he would spend a couple of months on the Islands instructing in his art under the auspices if the Piobaireachd Society. He had a well developed, almost philosophical dense of humour which came to the fore on one occasion after a court martial when he led the Battalion off the parade ground to “A Man’s a Man for a’ That”.
To those who knew P/M Lawrie he was also a great gentlemen. Those of us not so fortunate will remember him for his great music.
WW2 – Ian Lawrie - Capture at St Valery-en-Caux
He was survived by his wife and three children, the youngest of whom was the late Ian Lawrie, who, although perhaps less well known was to follow a path remarkably similar to that of his father. Born in the Loanfern area of Ballachulish in 1913 he was only 3 years old when his father died. Like his dad he started to learn the pipes when very young, with one of his uncles as tutor, and when old enough joined the 8th Argyll’s (T.A.) where he came into contact with Nicol MacCallum and brother, the late P/M Ronnie MacCallum of Inveraray. These two gentlemen were to have a considerable influence on his piping progress to the extent that he won the Argyll Junior Piper’s Cup for 3 consecutive years in the late 1920’s. He continued as a keen and very active piper and then on the outbreak of WW2 in 1939 history repeated itself and Ian, just as his father had done, served with the 8th Argyll’s in France under the command of Brigadier Lorne V.C. A fine 2/4 march bearing this officer’s name was composed in his honour by Angus McPherson of Inveran.
In 1940 when the British Expeditionary Force was surrounded at St Valery-en-Caux, Ian along with thousands of other men of the 51st Highland Division was captured and spend the rest of the war in a German P.O.W. camp. To add insult to injury all musical instruments, including the bagpipes, were confiscated or destroyed by the German authorities. However after a time one can only presume that the regulations were relaxed slightly because somehow or other a piano accordion materialised. Needless to say, this was a great morale booster for Ian who set to and taught himself to play it to a very acceptable standard.
By sheer coincidence a fellow prisoner was none other than the late Jimmy McFarlane, who was later to become fiddler and whistle player with the Jim MacLeod Band. Needless to say jimmy and Ian had some good wee tunes together.
After his “demob” the Ballachulish piper/accordionist returned home and remained an active member of the Kinlochleven Pipe Band until 1954, when he was forced to give up playing through ill-health, a direct result of the privations of the P.O.W. camps. But his interest in the pipes never waned and he channelled his energies into composing for the instrument. Of his many fine tunes, about fifteen have been saved for posterity of which only four have so far been published. Out of these four, the calibre of compositions like the jig “The Three Sisters of Glencoe” and “Mo Cailleag Fhein” (My Own Lass) – recorded several years ago by Jimmy Blue and his Band – show that Ian inherited his father’s talents to a marked degree.
Sadly he died on 28th January of this year (1987), but, as with P/M Willie Lawrie, he will not be forgotten.
The Box Player – Willie Jnr
The playing and composing achievements of these two men isn’t the end of the story however. Talents not infrequently show up in two generations but then more often than not skip one or more and appear later in the line, but in the Lawrie family they refused to sidestep and made it three in a row, a far rarer occurrence. Willie Lawrie Jnr arrived on the scene in Ballachulish, as did his two forbearers, in 1947. but now a slight deviation from precedent – he did not take up the pipes at a tender age, or if he did he must have laid them down again, but instead, at the age of eleven, he had a shot at his father’s pre-war Hohner accordion and was bitten. Self taught and a devotee of Bobby MacLeod, he graduated to playing for Scottish Country Dance classes in both Ballachulish and Kinlochleven, and in his mid-teens took the next logical step, viz. playing with a local band led by Charlie Campbell, and accordionist/saxophonist.
Having served his “apprenticeship” with this great group for six or seven years, and playing for dancing throughout the West of Scotland, Willie got a transfer to the well known Fergie MacDonald’s Highland Band in 1969, staying with them for four years, during which time the band recorded 2 L.P.s including solo tracts by Willie. One of the highlights of his association with Fergie was a trip to Copenhagen to play at a St Andrew’s Night Ball.
A chance to broaden his experience still further came in 1973 when he teamed up with Angus Grant, the left-handed fiddler from Caol near Fort William, to do mainly cabaret work in local hotels.
Throughout the late ‘70s and early ‘80s Willie concentrated more on solo playing broken by the odd “local” gig (using a scratch band) such as the St Andrew’s night dances on two occasions organised by the Caledonian Society of France.
In 1985 he invited two Fort William players, John Cameron (piano) and John McIntyre (bass), to join him, and as the Willie Lawrie Trio they entertained at several Accordion Clubs including the Premier Club of Northern Ireland.
But to get back on course, like his father and grandfather before him, Willie Jnr has a strong competitive urge, but it lay dormant until he was twenty years old. All it needed was something to spark it off. One evening in 1967 at a Scottish Country Dance Rally in the Corran Halls in Oban, the double bass player in the band was Duncan Campbell. Duncan is, of course, a tremendous enthusiast and a very active member of the Oban Festival Committee, and he it was who talked Willie into having a go and, as we all know, he has been hooked ever since. Incidentally, the fiddler in the band at that 1967 Corran Halls function was none other than Charlie Hunter, the father of bandleader Alasdair.
From first hand experience I can vouch for the fact that Willie is the perfect competitor. He doesn’t get upset if he disagrees with the adjudication, he is the first to congratulate successful competitors, and he is always on time to play in his allotted position. For twenty years he has staunchly supported over a wide area by entering the Senior Traditional Sections without fail. And this coming October he will be able to compete in the veterans (over 40) class at Perth. I know he is going to enter. He has a string of successes too numerous to catalogue here, with wins at Blairgowrie, Kinross, Oban and Perth to name but a few. In 1978 he was runner-up at Perth and third in the same section in1986, a performance which I would personally say was one of Willie’s greatest achievements in competition, playing flawlessly in the finals in a field of players mostly less than half his age and all with 10 fingers on each hand. A truly remarkable effort.
Still right on course in the true Lawrie tradition, at the age of fifteen Willie discovered the need to express himself in the dots – his natural composing talents had surfaced. He is a prolific composer, even more so than his predecessors. Quantity does not always ensure quality but in Willie’s case the majority of his tunes are good or very good. He has just got “it” – simple as that. His success in the Own Composition section at Perth speaks for itself – a record five times winner of the Jimmy Blue Trophy.
His tune titles reflect his interest in the folk around him, and his regard for fellow musicians, composers and other enthusiasts. Good examples are “Duncan Campbell of Oban” – a truly excellent tune in two flats – and “Willie Lawrie’s Compliments to Iain Peterson”. Willie has a great admiration for the younger generation of players – “Our music is safe in their hands” he stresses. Tunes such as “Deirdre’s Fancy”, “Kathleen Ann Black” and “Jennifer Forrest” back up this assertion. His respect for the older generation is manifested in such offerings as “The Mickie Ainsworth Polka” and “Willie Lawrie’s Compliments to Fraser McGlynn”!
In addition to a number of tunes appearing in earlier publications, more than thirty of Willie’s compositions are contained in a recently issued book “The Lochaber Collection”, hopefully the forerunner of more. There are so many others to come to light.
It is interesting to reflect on the fact that many of our best composers live either in rural environments, work in the open air, or have a great love of the outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
Why should this be? Your guess is as good as mine – some say they are inspired by the sounds and smells of nature. I wonder – birdsong – yes, flowers - yes, but the sound of a Force 10 gale and battering rain are not the most musical of sounds, and the aura of pig manure being broadcast over the countryside cannot quite match honeysuckle or Chanel No. 5. No, I think it must be the unpolluted (in the widest possible sense) surroundings and the freedom from so-called civilisation which leaves the brain uncluttered and capable of producing greater things.
For the record, the daily occupations of the Lawrie trio of composers in chronological order were slate quarryman, slate quarryman/forestry worker, and lastly Willie Jnr is furnaceman with “Alcan” in Kinlochleven where he now lives with his wife Cheryl and daughter Heather. Cheryl is not a musician, but is a keen Scottish Country Dancer and it was through this interest that she met her man. Heather is neither a piper nor accordionist, but plays recorder.
In conclusion, one thing is for sure. The remarkable Lawrie family will live on through their music. Like Fathers Like Sons.
Compositions of Pipe Major Willie Lawrie
2/4 Marches :-
The Braes of Brecklet
John MacColl’s March to Kilbowie Cottage
Mrs H. L. MacDonald of Dunach
John MacDonald of Glencoe
Captain Carswell
George Ross’s Farewell to the Black Watch
The Pap of Glencoe
4/4 Marches :-
The 8th Argyll’s Farewell to the 116th Regiment de Ligne (or The 8th Argyll’s Farewell to Bousincourt)
The Cellars of Authuille
Colonel Baird
Retreat March :-
The 8th Argyll’s
Strathspeys :-
Inveraray Castle, Kilberry
Reel :-
Clacklarick (Henderson’s Stone, Glencoe)
N.B. – the above is by no means an exhaustive list. P/M/ Lawrie also composed piobaireachds, his “Lament for the Late Lord Archibald Campbell” being but one example.
Box and Fiddle
October 1987