When first I met John, he was still heavily involved in playing with folk groups, and I had the opportunity to make (see above here) the drawings for the record sleeve of the L.P. of one of the popular folk groups he then played in, which went by the name of "Kees Ouwejan en Makkers". This was some thirty years ago and at that time, which was here called the "Folk Revival" in Holland, it was still quite novel to combine the traditional instrumental sound of the Great Highland Bagpipes with the songs of folk music. And the mouth blown type of chamber pipes which was then used for accompanying folk songs, (in this case with a concert pitch "A" Alexander chanter, with added high b top key) was then not as readily available as it is nowadays.

With Drum Major Elms and other veterans of the 48th., who presented us with their regimental History: "Dileas"

The Regimental History of the 48th. Highlanders of Canada.

Since then, we went overseas in 1989 to visit our relatives who lived in Calgary, Alberta and while doing so, also took the opportunity to also pay a visit to as many of the Canadian Regiments with a Scottish tradition as possible, starting on Nova Scotia in the East and finishing in Vancouver in the West.

Left to Right: Aquarelles of the 48th. Highlanders of Canada en route to The Hague in 1945, a Piper of the Cape Breton Highlanders of Canada, and an Oil Painting of 3 Pipers of the Canadian Scottish in England.

I had already started making some paintings of the liberation (see above here), which we presented to our liberators, and as all the photographs that were left from the liberation are only in black and white, I intend to make a full set of drawings of the pipers or drummers of all the Canadian regiments, as they were dressed over here during and after the Liberation,

Here are some more of the photographs I took during our trip across Canada:

With Colin Stevens, the Curator of the Seaforth Museum who showed us some very interesting items, such as

  
the last worn service dress jacket of P.M. Ed Esson and the Seaforth Pipe Banner (with case)

and this is how the Seaforths'Drill Hall in Vancouver looked

John will now continue with the story on how he did get interested in bagpipes and the Liberation, just click on the marker below here:

HOME

ABOUT US

THE CANADIAN ARMY IN WW2

THE PIPE MAJORS

CANADIAN UNITS WITH PIPE BANDS

WORLD WAR 2 MEMORIAL PIPE BANDS IN THE NETHERLANDS