Parliamentary Remembrance

For the last couple of years the Scottish Parliament has held a brief event at 11.00 am on the 11th of November if that is a sitting day.

This morning the Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick read the poem "Tik , Johnnie " by the Dundee poet Jospeh Lee and then the Parliament's piper Stuart McMillan MSP played "All The Blue Bonnets over the Border" which was the tune played by Piper Daniel Laidlaw at the Battle of Loos in September 1915.

Loos is often known as the "Scottish Battle" and few towns in the country were unaffected when the casualty lists were finally known.   Dundee contributed a particularly large number of those who did not come back.

Laidlaw won the VC at that battle and  the citation tells the story:   "During the worst of the bombardment Piper Laidlaw seeing that his company was badly shaken from the effects of gas with absolute coolness and disregard of danger mounted the parapet , marched up and down and played company out of the trench .  The effect of his splendid example was immediate and the company dashed out to the assault .  Piper Laidlaw continued playing his pipes until he was wounded."

Laidlaw recovered form his wounds and survived the war, returning home a celebrity.  He is one of the few WWI Pipers to have later been filmed playing the tune he played in battle.

On the 90th anniversary of the battle his grandson donated his VC to the National Museum of Scotland.