#Bagpipe player ww2 professional

This is where I learnt the fundamentals and the art of the Great Highland Bagpipe. I began my bagpiping odyssey as a child back in 1986 as a very young member of the Edmonton Boys Pipe Band, now known as the Edmonton Youth Pipe Band which is the oldest organization of its kind in Alberta. Contact Alastair to experience first hand his passion through piping. With over 30 years of experience, Alastair can tailor a set list to suit your wishes and entertain any audience. The sound of the pipes resonate with melodious tones as well as ominous and haunting sounds surely to enhance any occasion. Having a bagpiper perform for any occasion definitely adds some nostalgia to your event.

#Bagpipe player ww2 professional

In the 1950’s he trained as a psychiatric nurse in Glasgow, before moving to a hospital in Devon in the late 60s and eventually retiring in Alastair Briggs is a professional bagpiper for hire for all special occasions in Edmonton and throughout the province of Alberta. After the war Millin went to work on Lovat’s estate near Inverness, although he found life there too quiet and shortly later went on to join a travelling theatre company, playing his pipes on stage. Millin donated those pipes to Dawlish Museum in Devon and donated another set of pipes he used later in the campaign to the Pegasus Memorial Museum in France. Mission completed, although Millin’s pipes would eventually be damaged after taking shrapnel fire. Later that day the men took over some nearby farmhouses just outside a German-occupied village, which they would successfully storm the following morning. Read more about: Battles The largest seaborne invasion in history: The story of D-DayĪround 1 pm, an hour after their planned rendezvous, Lord Lovat and his Commandos had joined up with the 6th Airborne Division.

The capturing of the bridge played a crucial role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack. During the night before the D-Day landings, paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division seized and stubbornly held on to the bridge after flying in via glider. It was horrifying, as I felt so helpless.’Īfter the beach landings the Commandos advanced inland and towards Pont de Bénouville, a bridge that crossed the Caen Canal that would later be renamed Pegasus Bridge after the emblem of the British airborne forces. Instead, they saw me in my kilt and playing the bagpipes. They had been expecting to see a doctor or some kind of medical help. I will see their faces till the day I die,’ Millin said. ‘They were lying, blood pouring from them. Although estimates vary, some 4,400 Allied soldiers perished on those shores that day and Millin had a front row seat. Whilst the pipes might have saved his life and offered him a distraction, they didn’t completely shield him from witnessing what was going on around. ‘I was very pleased that they thought I was mad because everybody else seemed to be getting shot and wounded and being a bagpiper probably saved me,’ Millin would later recount. They said it was because they thought he was ‘dummkopf’, a foolhardy idiot. Two captured German snipers would reveal via translator why the piper at the front hadn’t been shot at. In the end, it was those pipes that kept Millin alive and the reason he survived that day without a scratch on him. Some even stopped what they were doing to wave their arms and cheer at him, although one soldier called him ‘the mad bastard.’ The legend of the ‘mad piper’ had been born. ‘I was concentrating on my bagpipes and Lovat is a bit of a critic of bagpipers, so I had to watch what I was playing, so I had no time to think about anything else.’ He would later recant that in the midst of battle, Lovat once turned to him and said, ‘you missed out three notes there piper!’Īfter the first song had been completed, Lovat asked Millin to move into a rendition of ‘Road to the Isles’, which he did as he slowly walked up and down the beach, lifting the spirits of those around him. When you’re young you do things you wouldn’t dream of doing when you’re older,’ he said.

‘I enjoyed playing the pipes, but I didn’t notice I was being shot at.

As well as the pride we felt, it reminded us of home, and why we were fighting there for our lives and those of our loved ones.’įor Millin, the pipes gave him something to focus on, to distract him from the horrors around, as well as providing relief after suffering terrible seasickness on the crossing over. It gave us a great lift and increased our determination. It is hard to describe the impact it had. ‘I shall never forget hearing the skirl of Bill Millin’s pipes. One of his fellow Commandos, Tom Duncan, would later state in an interview what the sound of those pipes meant to him on the beaches.

Many more would be moved by Millin’s music later that day. Read more about: Battles Operation Fortitude: the D-Day deception campaign that fooled the Nazis