Pipe Major George S. McLennan
A Gordon for Me
“Here I am dealing with a genius” wrote Angus MacPherson of Inveran or as Pipe Major Donald MacLeod said “I believe George McLennan was the most complete piper of the century.” Few would question those comments on G.S. as he was always known and who was to make his mark on the piping world in so many remarkable ways.
He came from a musical family that traces its history back directly to Murdoch MacLennan who was the Town Piper of Inverness and who lived from 1504 – 1574. Perhaps it is wise at this stage to clear up the mystery of the McLennans and the MacLennans! Few dispute that the correct spelling is Mac such as Major John MacLennan, G.S’s cousin or Captain Donald Ross MacLennan his half brother, but a fact of life is that John McLennan, his father who was a Gaelic scholar, always spelt his name with Mc, and his prayer book has “John McLennan, Fairburn 1863” written in it. G.S.’s birth certificate spells his name McL so he decided to leave it that way and rather nicely his son has done likewise.
John McLennan, who came from farming folk, was born at Kilcoy on the Black Isle north of Inverness and in 1865, together with a friend, walked to Dundee where he joined the police. Here he met and married Elizabeth Stewart, sister of Pipe Major John Stewart of the Black Watch, so his son was to have piping blood from both sides of the family. In 1878 John McLennan transferred to the Edinburgh Police and was to remain with them for 41 years holding the rank of Lieutenant for 27 years. He was a well known piper with strong views on how piobaireachd should be played, publishing a book on the subject showing considerable knowledge about the theory of music, but perhaps his ability as a tutor was where he was most remarkable because he taught his sons G.S. and D.R. and both, of course, were great pipers.
EARLY YEARS
G.S. was to be born in Edinburgh on 9th February 1884 and initially he was not all that well for it was not until he was about four and a half years old that he was able to walk. His father began to teach him to pipe when he was about 4 and it is known that his first tune was “Kenmuir’s On and Awa”! He showed early promise and in addition to his father, he was also tutored by his maternal uncle John Stewart and indeed had a year’s tuition from the great John MacDougall Gillies.
In 1893, at the age of 9, G.S. won the Amateur National Championship for marches, strathspeys and reels and then in 1894 and 1895 the Scottish Amateur Championship for piping. A year later, aged 12, he won the London Highland Amateur Championship for piobaireachd, marches, strathspeys and reels. Queen Victoria heard of “this marvellous boy” and asked that he be brought to Balmoral to play before her which he did aged 10, though it is said he was more interested in the cakes he was given than the Queen. It is thought that this honour has been granted only once before when Patrick Mor MacCrimmon was summoned to London to play before King Charles I in 1626.
The child, having been taught Highland dancing by his cousin William McLennan a famous dancer and well known piper who incidentally had been taught to pipe by John McLennan, was also a noted Highland dancer winning the Scottish and English Amateur Championships in 1895 when he was 11. In many ways this was even more remarkable than his piping prowess bearing in mind his early difficulty in walking.
Sadly it was about this time that his mother died and some two years later his father married a widow with two children who were later joined by three others in the course of a few years, resulting in less living space at home. Added to this economic fact was another problem. G.S. adored the sea and had been training on H.M.S. Redwing, an old wooden ship moored on the forth. Indeed so much did he enjoy the training that his father became concerned lest he joined the Royal or Merchant Navy which would have been a hard life and certainly would have restricted the development of his playing as time to practice would have been limited. Thus because of family economics and the sea, on 3rd October 1899 G.S. was given a note by his father, the contents of which he was unaware, and he was told to take it to one Sergeant Mitchell, the Gordon’s Recruiting Sergeant. The message read “Please enlist my boy, the bearer George Stewart McLennan in the 1st Gordon Highlanders and send him up to the Castle as soon as possible.” The boy took it to Edinburgh Castle where he was duly enlisted – perhaps to his surprise! The Regiment was probably chosen because his brother Frank was serving in D Company of the Battalion while John MacLennan, his cousin, was also in it and indeed was to become the Regimental Sergeant Major of the 1st Battalion during the Boer War in South Africa where he won the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He was later commissioned Quartermaster in May 1902 and rose to the rank of Major when he was killed by a fall from his horse in France in 1916. He is, of course, the subject of one of G.S’s famous marches.
A GORDON HIGHLANDER
The young piper was bitterly disappointed when just after he had enlisted , the 1st Battalion left Edinburgh for South Africa and he, because of his age, was left behind with the rear details. He was then only five foot two and a half inches and undoubtedly came up against some bullying but determined not to be outdone, he bought a book on how to teach yourself jujitsu! So successful was his self instruction that when a drummer went for him, the man was continually thrown by the small piper and the word got out that it was best to leave young McLennan well alone!
An excellent and intelligent soldier let alone piper, he was promoted Lance Corporal in 1902, Corporal in 1904 and Sergeant in March 1905 when he succeeded a well known character John Brown as Pipe Major of the 1st Battalion the Gordon Highlanders, the youngest ever in the British Army up to that time and probably since because he was just 21 years old.
Small in stature but neatly built with a fine military bearing, he was a most unusual man never losing his magic as a personality or player and yet remaining essentially a courteous, kind, quiet, modest person. He appealed to people from all walks of life as his wide range of friends indicates because he was a firm believer in doing unto others as you would wish to be done by and of course he was always will to answer any genuine plea for help. Though he was a strict disciplinarian, he was immensely popular with all ranks of the Regiment and there is no doubt that he was the greatest Pipe Major the Gordon Highlanders have ever had.
His ability as a player has become one of the legends of piping and it is sad to think that his playing was never recorded. However William Gray has written “George McLennan’s little finger which seemed as if it had been part of a mechanical contrivance placed on the chanter to make it trill in marches, strathspeys and reels. George’s playing gave me the impression of the supernatural and kept one spellbound” whole the famous John MacDonald of Inverness was to say “ His fingering in march, Strathspey and reels was brilliant. He was a master of this type of music and we shall probably never hear his like again.” Yet for all that he remained a most modest man, his head was never turned by successes and there were many!
He won his first Gold Medal at Oban in 1904, the Gold Medal at Inverness in 1905 and Gold Clasps at Inverness in 1909, 1920 and 1921. In all he won some 2,000 piping awards! However in the early 1900’s he was unable to attend many of the Highland Games as he was not allowed leave away from the Battalion for this purpose unless he was prepared to forfeit his Christmas Holidays and so his successes might have well have been greater had the Gordon Highlanders been more generous!
It is interesting that possibly of all light music G.S. most enjoyed playing jigs. In one of his composing books is written “I am immensely fond of jig playing and consider it one of the finest methods possible for putting one into form. In fact one cannot play jigs unless one is in tiptop form…My “Jig of Slurs” I am extremely proud of..not of course as a tune with a fine melody but for its grand execution. I do not know a tune – piobaireachd or anything – which is nearly so difficult or requires such a nimble figure to play. The person who can play it through two or three times without missing a slur has certainly no cause to be ashamed of his fingers. G.S. McLennan 13.12.10”
Like his father he was a superb teacher and not surprisingly the standard of piping in the 1st Battalion during his 8 years as Pipe Major was described as second to none. He also taught young officers to play – 2nd Lieutenant, later Colonel C.M. Usher is an example – and in so doing laid foundations for the long term encouragement of and interest in piping which last to this day in his beloved Regiment.
PIOBAIREACHD
His playing of piobaireachd was excellent but because of his loyalty to his father and his belief that his system of playing ceol mor was correct he did not often play the Piobaireachd Society way and by so doing he knew beforehand that he was unlikely to gain first prize in such competitions. However he taught others the Piobaireachd Society approach so that they would not be condemned and when he did play that way himself he was usually sure of a good place in the competition.
COMPOSITIONS
His compositions will of course ensure his name is never forgotten. It is often said that some of his best tunes are the most simple and many of his are so easy to play, yet so beautifully musical and fresh. More complex, brilliant melodies also abound but there is little doubt that as has been said “George McLennan did not compose any music that was mediocre”. This is indicated even by the last tune that he composed “Major C.M. Usher O.B.E” because it is remarkable for the fine way in which, especially in the last part, it progresses from the top to the bottom notes. Usher had been a friend for many years and on the back of the original manuscript after saying he was pleased to send the tune to mark Usher’s promotion, is written “Hand and eye about gone now Sincerely Yours G.S. McLennan”.
Of course the gift of composition is a very special one and no-one disputes that G.S. had it to an unusual degree. He had the ability to hear music in all sorts of places and in all sorts of muses. Train journeys seem to have been particularly profitable as indicated by “The Lochaber Gathering”, “Inverlochy Castle” or “The Skook”. Tunes he had heard in the past from others and to which he added arrangements such as “Willie Murray’s Reel” or “Biddy from Sligo” too had their effect, as did quiet moments such as while waiting for a pupil at Wellington College when he composed the tune later called “Captain S.R. Lumsden”. He heard music in running water such as “The Little Cascade” or in drum beats as with “King George V’s Army”, indeed his system of recording the tunes shows how often music came to him. Her was rarely without a small, oblong pocket music book in which he wrote down the theme notes as he heard them and later he would transcribe the tune neatly into a large music book almost invariably with the date and place where it was composed. However if his small notebook was not readily available he would write down the outline of the composition on any scrap of paper than came to hand – cigarette packets, old envelopes, bits of manuscript and so on.
After he was appointed Pipe Major in 1905 he served with the 1st Battalion in Cork, Aldershot and Colchester where in 1910 he met his future wife Nona Lucking whose father was a cab proprietor in the town. They married on 3rd April, 1912 and were to have a family of two sons both born in Aberdeen, George in July 1914 and John in January 1916. Nona McLennan was a very musical person having an excellent voice and being a member of a local operatic society and of course she took a close and knowledgeable interest in her husband’s music.
WORLD WAR 1
In 1913 G.S. left the 1st Battalion and was posted to the Gordon’s Depot in Aberdeen where he was to remain until 1918 when he was sent back to the 1st Battalion then serving in France with the 3rd Division, or as it was nicknamed “The Iron Division”. He was to take over from Pipe Major Tom Henderson who had been killed and arrived in time to take part in the great defensive battles to stem the German attacks that had begun on 20th March that year and he used to say how the Iron Division did not break, it only bent a little! When in the line he was a Lewis Gunner, his loader being Piper A.T. Stephens who was later to become a Pipe Major in the Regiment.
On 14th May, 1918 while in the trenches he became quite seriously ill with a temperature of 102 but he refused to go sick as he did not want to leave the Battalion while it was still in the line. On 16th May he played “A” Company out of the trenches but collapsed and the next day he was taken to the 4th Canadian Clearing Station where he had fluid drained from his left lung and almost certainly this minor operation was to have long term implications that were to lead to his untimely end. However on 8th June he left to rejoin the Battalion then at Choques in the Bethune area, walking the whole way as there was no transport. He commenced playing again on 30th June.
During this period with the Battalion G.S. really began his bagpipe makers business for while in the trenches and billets he made reeds to keep himself occupied. These were sent to various units and the proceeds dispatched home to his wife in Aberdeen resulting in a nest egg when he returned from Germany. Many of his friends who were with him at the time used to speak of him standing in trenches engrossed with his reed making and quite oblivious to all other discomforts!
He remained with the Battalion throughout 1918 taking part in the great Allied counter offensive which took the Gordon’s to Maubuege when the war ended in November. G.S. stayed with the Battalion which became part of the Army of Occupation in Germany until 1919 and then went with it to Ireland where he handed over his appointment to his great friend Jimmy Robertson. It is also of note that on 17th December, 1919 at St Peter’s, Eaton Square, London Captain C.M. Usher got married and the pipers who played at his wedding were Pipe Major G.S. McLennan and Pipe Major Jimmy Robertson Gordon Highlanders, who composed a tune “Captain C.M. Usher’s Wedding” also known as “Glenord”, Pipe Major Jack Lawrie, formerly Pipe corporal 1st Gordon’s and promoted Pipe Major of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Pipe Corporal Donald Ross MacLennan, Scots Guards, half brother of G.S.
BACK TO CIVILIAN LIFE
Thus is 1919 G.S. was posted back to the Depot being discharged on pension in 1922 after twenty-two and a half years service. He held the British War and Victory Medals and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, not awarded as easily then as it is now. On leaving the Regiment he set himself up in Aberdeen as a bagpipe maker and had a shop at 2 Bath Street, just off Bridge Street, while he and his family lived at 48b Powis Place, Aberdeen. He taught both his sons top play and play well, though it was John, his youngest son, who really inherited his gift. Both boys joined the 5th/7th Gordon’s in the early 1930’s and played in the Pipe Band and both were to go with the Regiment to France in 1939. Sadly John was killed near St Valery on 12th June, 1940 while George was wounded and then captured and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner but their father’s great example of service was followed.
After he retired G.S. was dogged by ill health though in 1926 for the third time he won the Masters March, Strathspey and Reel competition at the Northern Meeting. It was at a previous Northern Meeting that an interesting incident involving G.S. and the great Pipe Major Willie Ross took place. In those days all competitors had to march to the Games field before competing but unfortunately Willie Ross failed to appear on parade and he was told that in accordance with the rules, he could not compete. On hearing this G.S. told the Committee that he would not take part in the competition and so they then decided to waive the rule for that day. Ross won first prize, while G.S. came second. Willie Ross later wrote to his friend thanking his for standing up for a fellow competitor and turning a nice compliment to G.S. by stating “even my own mother (Mrs Ross) knew who the better piper was that day.”
Bad manners he would not tolerate. One day a farm servant went into his shop and asked for a pipe reed to suit his chanter so G.S. took the chanter, fitted a reed and tried it but it did not blow well. The yokel snatched if from him saying “I’ll blaw it”! G.S. tore the chanter out of his grasp and with an expression plainly showing he had been insulted, said with tremendous authority “Do you know who you are speaking to? I am George S. McLennan.” His crisp, ringing voice and his bearing completely deflated the rude customer who humbly left the shop with a suitable reed. In 1927 G.S. piped at the funeral of on of Scotland’s foremost fiddle players, James Scott Skinner.
LAST DAYS
However as mid 1929 approached it was clear the great man, young though he was, was failing fast and on 1st June that year when he was only 45 years old he passed away with a practice chanter in his hand. The Press had a field day and most of their stories concerning his death were highly imaginative and sensational. His son writes “As you know he had been very ill since 1924, although he carried on with his piping and his business until the beginning of 1929. He suffered very much as he had carcinoma of the lung, which had started on a scar left after the operation to remove fluid from his left lung…Each evening my brother and I had tuition from father for an hour, even up until the night he died. That night I had my lesson, the tune was “Dancing Feet” and then my brother had to play the same tune. Except for forgetting one “G” grace note on the “draw” father had been quite pleased with us, but insisted that we must play the “G” as he did. He asked John to play this over to see that he had got it correctly and then, with each of us in turn blowing, he fingered the chanter. While John was blowing, father’s fingers slipped from the chanter and he lapsed into unconsciousness, from which he did not recover. So much for the Piper playing his own Lament! At no time did he complain even though he knew that he was dying, but bore the pain and died peacefully. My mother, John and I were all present when his death came, just before midnight.”
The funeral took place on 4th June with over 20,000 people lining the route from his home to the station in Aberdeen. The gun carriage bearing the coffin was preceded by pipe bands from the Depot. The Gordon Highlanders, the British Legion and one formed by competitors from the Highland Games. Following were a mass of mourners headed by his two sons and a brother, also Major Usher and many other Gordons such as Pipe Major George Findlater VC, Pipe Major Jimmy Robertson, Pipe Major Jimmy Cruickshank and Piper Bob Nicol. The coffin was met at its arrival in Edinburgh by other mourners, including his brothers Duncan, John, William and Donald and the many Gordon Highlanders there were led by Colonel William Robertson VC. The burial took place at Echobank Cemetery and his favourite piobaireachd “Lament for the Children” was played by his friend Pipe Major Robert Reid of Glasgow. The king of pipers, deeply mourned was laid to rest in the city where he was born.
There is little more to say. George McLennan was a very great man in his own right and a wonderful musician, fine soldier and honourable gentlemen, he left his mark on the world and his name will live for ever through his wonderful compositions.
Box and Fiddle
March 1998
He came from a musical family that traces its history back directly to Murdoch MacLennan who was the Town Piper of Inverness and who lived from 1504 – 1574. Perhaps it is wise at this stage to clear up the mystery of the McLennans and the MacLennans! Few dispute that the correct spelling is Mac such as Major John MacLennan, G.S’s cousin or Captain Donald Ross MacLennan his half brother, but a fact of life is that John McLennan, his father who was a Gaelic scholar, always spelt his name with Mc, and his prayer book has “John McLennan, Fairburn 1863” written in it. G.S.’s birth certificate spells his name McL so he decided to leave it that way and rather nicely his son has done likewise.
John McLennan, who came from farming folk, was born at Kilcoy on the Black Isle north of Inverness and in 1865, together with a friend, walked to Dundee where he joined the police. Here he met and married Elizabeth Stewart, sister of Pipe Major John Stewart of the Black Watch, so his son was to have piping blood from both sides of the family. In 1878 John McLennan transferred to the Edinburgh Police and was to remain with them for 41 years holding the rank of Lieutenant for 27 years. He was a well known piper with strong views on how piobaireachd should be played, publishing a book on the subject showing considerable knowledge about the theory of music, but perhaps his ability as a tutor was where he was most remarkable because he taught his sons G.S. and D.R. and both, of course, were great pipers.
EARLY YEARS
G.S. was to be born in Edinburgh on 9th February 1884 and initially he was not all that well for it was not until he was about four and a half years old that he was able to walk. His father began to teach him to pipe when he was about 4 and it is known that his first tune was “Kenmuir’s On and Awa”! He showed early promise and in addition to his father, he was also tutored by his maternal uncle John Stewart and indeed had a year’s tuition from the great John MacDougall Gillies.
In 1893, at the age of 9, G.S. won the Amateur National Championship for marches, strathspeys and reels and then in 1894 and 1895 the Scottish Amateur Championship for piping. A year later, aged 12, he won the London Highland Amateur Championship for piobaireachd, marches, strathspeys and reels. Queen Victoria heard of “this marvellous boy” and asked that he be brought to Balmoral to play before her which he did aged 10, though it is said he was more interested in the cakes he was given than the Queen. It is thought that this honour has been granted only once before when Patrick Mor MacCrimmon was summoned to London to play before King Charles I in 1626.
The child, having been taught Highland dancing by his cousin William McLennan a famous dancer and well known piper who incidentally had been taught to pipe by John McLennan, was also a noted Highland dancer winning the Scottish and English Amateur Championships in 1895 when he was 11. In many ways this was even more remarkable than his piping prowess bearing in mind his early difficulty in walking.
Sadly it was about this time that his mother died and some two years later his father married a widow with two children who were later joined by three others in the course of a few years, resulting in less living space at home. Added to this economic fact was another problem. G.S. adored the sea and had been training on H.M.S. Redwing, an old wooden ship moored on the forth. Indeed so much did he enjoy the training that his father became concerned lest he joined the Royal or Merchant Navy which would have been a hard life and certainly would have restricted the development of his playing as time to practice would have been limited. Thus because of family economics and the sea, on 3rd October 1899 G.S. was given a note by his father, the contents of which he was unaware, and he was told to take it to one Sergeant Mitchell, the Gordon’s Recruiting Sergeant. The message read “Please enlist my boy, the bearer George Stewart McLennan in the 1st Gordon Highlanders and send him up to the Castle as soon as possible.” The boy took it to Edinburgh Castle where he was duly enlisted – perhaps to his surprise! The Regiment was probably chosen because his brother Frank was serving in D Company of the Battalion while John MacLennan, his cousin, was also in it and indeed was to become the Regimental Sergeant Major of the 1st Battalion during the Boer War in South Africa where he won the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He was later commissioned Quartermaster in May 1902 and rose to the rank of Major when he was killed by a fall from his horse in France in 1916. He is, of course, the subject of one of G.S’s famous marches.
A GORDON HIGHLANDER
The young piper was bitterly disappointed when just after he had enlisted , the 1st Battalion left Edinburgh for South Africa and he, because of his age, was left behind with the rear details. He was then only five foot two and a half inches and undoubtedly came up against some bullying but determined not to be outdone, he bought a book on how to teach yourself jujitsu! So successful was his self instruction that when a drummer went for him, the man was continually thrown by the small piper and the word got out that it was best to leave young McLennan well alone!
An excellent and intelligent soldier let alone piper, he was promoted Lance Corporal in 1902, Corporal in 1904 and Sergeant in March 1905 when he succeeded a well known character John Brown as Pipe Major of the 1st Battalion the Gordon Highlanders, the youngest ever in the British Army up to that time and probably since because he was just 21 years old.
Small in stature but neatly built with a fine military bearing, he was a most unusual man never losing his magic as a personality or player and yet remaining essentially a courteous, kind, quiet, modest person. He appealed to people from all walks of life as his wide range of friends indicates because he was a firm believer in doing unto others as you would wish to be done by and of course he was always will to answer any genuine plea for help. Though he was a strict disciplinarian, he was immensely popular with all ranks of the Regiment and there is no doubt that he was the greatest Pipe Major the Gordon Highlanders have ever had.
His ability as a player has become one of the legends of piping and it is sad to think that his playing was never recorded. However William Gray has written “George McLennan’s little finger which seemed as if it had been part of a mechanical contrivance placed on the chanter to make it trill in marches, strathspeys and reels. George’s playing gave me the impression of the supernatural and kept one spellbound” whole the famous John MacDonald of Inverness was to say “ His fingering in march, Strathspey and reels was brilliant. He was a master of this type of music and we shall probably never hear his like again.” Yet for all that he remained a most modest man, his head was never turned by successes and there were many!
He won his first Gold Medal at Oban in 1904, the Gold Medal at Inverness in 1905 and Gold Clasps at Inverness in 1909, 1920 and 1921. In all he won some 2,000 piping awards! However in the early 1900’s he was unable to attend many of the Highland Games as he was not allowed leave away from the Battalion for this purpose unless he was prepared to forfeit his Christmas Holidays and so his successes might have well have been greater had the Gordon Highlanders been more generous!
It is interesting that possibly of all light music G.S. most enjoyed playing jigs. In one of his composing books is written “I am immensely fond of jig playing and consider it one of the finest methods possible for putting one into form. In fact one cannot play jigs unless one is in tiptop form…My “Jig of Slurs” I am extremely proud of..not of course as a tune with a fine melody but for its grand execution. I do not know a tune – piobaireachd or anything – which is nearly so difficult or requires such a nimble figure to play. The person who can play it through two or three times without missing a slur has certainly no cause to be ashamed of his fingers. G.S. McLennan 13.12.10”
Like his father he was a superb teacher and not surprisingly the standard of piping in the 1st Battalion during his 8 years as Pipe Major was described as second to none. He also taught young officers to play – 2nd Lieutenant, later Colonel C.M. Usher is an example – and in so doing laid foundations for the long term encouragement of and interest in piping which last to this day in his beloved Regiment.
PIOBAIREACHD
His playing of piobaireachd was excellent but because of his loyalty to his father and his belief that his system of playing ceol mor was correct he did not often play the Piobaireachd Society way and by so doing he knew beforehand that he was unlikely to gain first prize in such competitions. However he taught others the Piobaireachd Society approach so that they would not be condemned and when he did play that way himself he was usually sure of a good place in the competition.
COMPOSITIONS
His compositions will of course ensure his name is never forgotten. It is often said that some of his best tunes are the most simple and many of his are so easy to play, yet so beautifully musical and fresh. More complex, brilliant melodies also abound but there is little doubt that as has been said “George McLennan did not compose any music that was mediocre”. This is indicated even by the last tune that he composed “Major C.M. Usher O.B.E” because it is remarkable for the fine way in which, especially in the last part, it progresses from the top to the bottom notes. Usher had been a friend for many years and on the back of the original manuscript after saying he was pleased to send the tune to mark Usher’s promotion, is written “Hand and eye about gone now Sincerely Yours G.S. McLennan”.
Of course the gift of composition is a very special one and no-one disputes that G.S. had it to an unusual degree. He had the ability to hear music in all sorts of places and in all sorts of muses. Train journeys seem to have been particularly profitable as indicated by “The Lochaber Gathering”, “Inverlochy Castle” or “The Skook”. Tunes he had heard in the past from others and to which he added arrangements such as “Willie Murray’s Reel” or “Biddy from Sligo” too had their effect, as did quiet moments such as while waiting for a pupil at Wellington College when he composed the tune later called “Captain S.R. Lumsden”. He heard music in running water such as “The Little Cascade” or in drum beats as with “King George V’s Army”, indeed his system of recording the tunes shows how often music came to him. Her was rarely without a small, oblong pocket music book in which he wrote down the theme notes as he heard them and later he would transcribe the tune neatly into a large music book almost invariably with the date and place where it was composed. However if his small notebook was not readily available he would write down the outline of the composition on any scrap of paper than came to hand – cigarette packets, old envelopes, bits of manuscript and so on.
After he was appointed Pipe Major in 1905 he served with the 1st Battalion in Cork, Aldershot and Colchester where in 1910 he met his future wife Nona Lucking whose father was a cab proprietor in the town. They married on 3rd April, 1912 and were to have a family of two sons both born in Aberdeen, George in July 1914 and John in January 1916. Nona McLennan was a very musical person having an excellent voice and being a member of a local operatic society and of course she took a close and knowledgeable interest in her husband’s music.
WORLD WAR 1
In 1913 G.S. left the 1st Battalion and was posted to the Gordon’s Depot in Aberdeen where he was to remain until 1918 when he was sent back to the 1st Battalion then serving in France with the 3rd Division, or as it was nicknamed “The Iron Division”. He was to take over from Pipe Major Tom Henderson who had been killed and arrived in time to take part in the great defensive battles to stem the German attacks that had begun on 20th March that year and he used to say how the Iron Division did not break, it only bent a little! When in the line he was a Lewis Gunner, his loader being Piper A.T. Stephens who was later to become a Pipe Major in the Regiment.
On 14th May, 1918 while in the trenches he became quite seriously ill with a temperature of 102 but he refused to go sick as he did not want to leave the Battalion while it was still in the line. On 16th May he played “A” Company out of the trenches but collapsed and the next day he was taken to the 4th Canadian Clearing Station where he had fluid drained from his left lung and almost certainly this minor operation was to have long term implications that were to lead to his untimely end. However on 8th June he left to rejoin the Battalion then at Choques in the Bethune area, walking the whole way as there was no transport. He commenced playing again on 30th June.
During this period with the Battalion G.S. really began his bagpipe makers business for while in the trenches and billets he made reeds to keep himself occupied. These were sent to various units and the proceeds dispatched home to his wife in Aberdeen resulting in a nest egg when he returned from Germany. Many of his friends who were with him at the time used to speak of him standing in trenches engrossed with his reed making and quite oblivious to all other discomforts!
He remained with the Battalion throughout 1918 taking part in the great Allied counter offensive which took the Gordon’s to Maubuege when the war ended in November. G.S. stayed with the Battalion which became part of the Army of Occupation in Germany until 1919 and then went with it to Ireland where he handed over his appointment to his great friend Jimmy Robertson. It is also of note that on 17th December, 1919 at St Peter’s, Eaton Square, London Captain C.M. Usher got married and the pipers who played at his wedding were Pipe Major G.S. McLennan and Pipe Major Jimmy Robertson Gordon Highlanders, who composed a tune “Captain C.M. Usher’s Wedding” also known as “Glenord”, Pipe Major Jack Lawrie, formerly Pipe corporal 1st Gordon’s and promoted Pipe Major of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Pipe Corporal Donald Ross MacLennan, Scots Guards, half brother of G.S.
BACK TO CIVILIAN LIFE
Thus is 1919 G.S. was posted back to the Depot being discharged on pension in 1922 after twenty-two and a half years service. He held the British War and Victory Medals and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, not awarded as easily then as it is now. On leaving the Regiment he set himself up in Aberdeen as a bagpipe maker and had a shop at 2 Bath Street, just off Bridge Street, while he and his family lived at 48b Powis Place, Aberdeen. He taught both his sons top play and play well, though it was John, his youngest son, who really inherited his gift. Both boys joined the 5th/7th Gordon’s in the early 1930’s and played in the Pipe Band and both were to go with the Regiment to France in 1939. Sadly John was killed near St Valery on 12th June, 1940 while George was wounded and then captured and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner but their father’s great example of service was followed.
After he retired G.S. was dogged by ill health though in 1926 for the third time he won the Masters March, Strathspey and Reel competition at the Northern Meeting. It was at a previous Northern Meeting that an interesting incident involving G.S. and the great Pipe Major Willie Ross took place. In those days all competitors had to march to the Games field before competing but unfortunately Willie Ross failed to appear on parade and he was told that in accordance with the rules, he could not compete. On hearing this G.S. told the Committee that he would not take part in the competition and so they then decided to waive the rule for that day. Ross won first prize, while G.S. came second. Willie Ross later wrote to his friend thanking his for standing up for a fellow competitor and turning a nice compliment to G.S. by stating “even my own mother (Mrs Ross) knew who the better piper was that day.”
Bad manners he would not tolerate. One day a farm servant went into his shop and asked for a pipe reed to suit his chanter so G.S. took the chanter, fitted a reed and tried it but it did not blow well. The yokel snatched if from him saying “I’ll blaw it”! G.S. tore the chanter out of his grasp and with an expression plainly showing he had been insulted, said with tremendous authority “Do you know who you are speaking to? I am George S. McLennan.” His crisp, ringing voice and his bearing completely deflated the rude customer who humbly left the shop with a suitable reed. In 1927 G.S. piped at the funeral of on of Scotland’s foremost fiddle players, James Scott Skinner.
LAST DAYS
However as mid 1929 approached it was clear the great man, young though he was, was failing fast and on 1st June that year when he was only 45 years old he passed away with a practice chanter in his hand. The Press had a field day and most of their stories concerning his death were highly imaginative and sensational. His son writes “As you know he had been very ill since 1924, although he carried on with his piping and his business until the beginning of 1929. He suffered very much as he had carcinoma of the lung, which had started on a scar left after the operation to remove fluid from his left lung…Each evening my brother and I had tuition from father for an hour, even up until the night he died. That night I had my lesson, the tune was “Dancing Feet” and then my brother had to play the same tune. Except for forgetting one “G” grace note on the “draw” father had been quite pleased with us, but insisted that we must play the “G” as he did. He asked John to play this over to see that he had got it correctly and then, with each of us in turn blowing, he fingered the chanter. While John was blowing, father’s fingers slipped from the chanter and he lapsed into unconsciousness, from which he did not recover. So much for the Piper playing his own Lament! At no time did he complain even though he knew that he was dying, but bore the pain and died peacefully. My mother, John and I were all present when his death came, just before midnight.”
The funeral took place on 4th June with over 20,000 people lining the route from his home to the station in Aberdeen. The gun carriage bearing the coffin was preceded by pipe bands from the Depot. The Gordon Highlanders, the British Legion and one formed by competitors from the Highland Games. Following were a mass of mourners headed by his two sons and a brother, also Major Usher and many other Gordons such as Pipe Major George Findlater VC, Pipe Major Jimmy Robertson, Pipe Major Jimmy Cruickshank and Piper Bob Nicol. The coffin was met at its arrival in Edinburgh by other mourners, including his brothers Duncan, John, William and Donald and the many Gordon Highlanders there were led by Colonel William Robertson VC. The burial took place at Echobank Cemetery and his favourite piobaireachd “Lament for the Children” was played by his friend Pipe Major Robert Reid of Glasgow. The king of pipers, deeply mourned was laid to rest in the city where he was born.
There is little more to say. George McLennan was a very great man in his own right and a wonderful musician, fine soldier and honourable gentlemen, he left his mark on the world and his name will live for ever through his wonderful compositions.
Box and Fiddle
March 1998
