Bagpipes Major Manson's Farewell to Clachantrushal played by Niall Stewart Donald Maclean's piping career started at an early age when his elder brother Murdo suffered a wound to the lung as a soldier of the Great War. Murdo took up playing the chanter at home to help his recovery. Donald was only about 8 years old but borrowed Murdo's instrument. Their youngest brother Willie (Uilleam), now living in Heatherhill, Barabhas (Barvas), paints a vivid picture of the young Donald with fire-blackened kitchen tongs over his shoulder and the family cat under his arm, he made everyone laugh as he marched around the room pretending to play the pipes. Peter Stewart, late of Barabhas, taught Murdo and Donald on the chanter as they passed homeward from school, and Donald soon displayed superior skills. While his elder brothers Murdo and Alec became a doctor and teacher respectively, Donald joined the Seaforth Highlanders (1926), joking that someone had to keep the bodachs back home in tobacco. It is said that his grandfather gave up smoking when he overheard this. He played unusually with his right hand above his left, opposite from most pipers. Donald trained with the army and on 27th February 1931 attained his Pipe Major's Standard Certificate while Corporal in the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. He is said to have become the youngest Pipe Major in the British Army. In 1936 Donald transferred to the 2nd Battalion as Pipe Major. He studied piping under D. R. MacLennan, Willie Ross and Angus MacPherson. A handsome figure, he enjoyed cutting a dash in full Highland regalia, and can be seen smiling broadly in a photograph I have, taken of him in uniform at Morecambe in about 1938. A fine article by William Evans and Alex Craig published in the Piping Times a few years ago includes a photograph of the Pipe Major with the 2nd Battalion band taken in Aldershot in September 1939. The Lance Corporal Piper seated immediately to his right is the famous Donald Macleod of Steornabhaigh (Stornoway). Piper Alex Craig is also present. Before the outbreak of WW2 my grand uncle served in Egypt and Palestine. When Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940, Donald hurriedly left Britain to rejoin the 2nd Battalion of the Seaforths, by the part of the 51st Highland Division, on the Continent. Following action against German armoured and artillery units, including Rommel's 25th Panzer Regiment 2&3, the Highland Division was surrounded and plans made for a dunlirk-style evacuation. These plans failed and two of the Division's three Brigades were ordered to surrender at St-Valery-en-Caux, a fishing port west of Dieppe. Donald was captured there on or about 12th June 1940. He and his family were no stranger to such a situation, his father having been ordered into internment with the Royal Naval Division in neutral Holland for most of the 1914-18 War. Donald survived a harrowing forced march from France with little food or shelter. He was later held in Stalag XXIB, and remained a POW in Poland and Germany for most of the war. As most readers will know, it was during the above march that the ever resourceful Donald Macleod escaped, becoming Pipe Major with the Seaforth Highlanders and later the Queen's Own Highlanders. Donald Maclean composed several tunes. His march 'The Heroes of St Valery' commemorates those who fought and fell there, including the piper and drummer who rest in the well cared for military cemetery above the town. St Valery-en-Caux retains strong links with the Highlands to this day, its sign showing it to be 'jumellee avec' (twinned with) Inverness. Shortly after capture, Donald composed arguably his best known tune, the 2/4 march 'Major David Manson at Clachantrushal'. He is said to have lost his chanter and borrowed Piper Alex Craig's to compose the tune -- Alex had hidden it in socks inside his backpack. Major Manson, a retired officer of the Canadian Arly, worked as a silversmith in Glasgow, and was a great friend to Donald. The title probably commemorates Manson's visit to Donald's home in Ballantrushal, during which he presented Donald with an engraved, silver mounted set of bagpipes. The Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music Volume II, (p46, tune 611, Paterson's Publications 1992), lists this tune as 'Major Manson's Farewell to Clachantrushal'

• published: 03 Apr 2012
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