Obituary A new career in Highland Sup-
plies beckoned and in late 1987 Lewis moved back to his ‘home town’ of Auckland and opened Lewis Turrell’s House of
Scotland.The timing of this venture was not perfect as in October of that year a global economic depression hit,but Lewis persisted and made a success of his venture. In 1988 he became President of
LewisTurrell at Aboyne in 1958 Lewis returned to New Zealand
in late 1959 and involved himself in bands and solo competitions. This latter activity gave way as his involvement with bands increased and over the next 27 years he played with the Auckland,Whangarei and Innes Tartan bands. In 1975 he became pipe major of the City of Invercargill Caledonian and led them to victory in the New Zealand Pipe Band Championships in 1979 and 1980. He was appointed as Queen’s
Piper in New Zealand in 1977 and held that position for eight years. In 1981 he was appointed a Member of the British Empire (MBE). The following year he took up the position of pipe major of the City of Wellington Pipe Band and led them to successive victories in the New Zealand Championships 1984, 85, 86 and 87.
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theAuckland Pipers’Club and for the next seven years hosted all the top New Zealand pipers and many visiting overseas
players.The first time I heard him play was at Christchurch in the mid 1970s at an ‘after-match’ function when, for an hour or more, he played jig after jig after jig. Most people were aware that he loved jigs and it certainly showed on that occasion. Over the years I have heard some
quite sublime performances from him Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s a number of Auckland pipers regu- larly got together on most Sunday afternoons just to play a few tunes. During this period I heard Lewis play many thousands of tunes and became accustomed to hearing great piping in the confines of my own home. In 1991 I visited him to play
through the tunes I was submitting in the Comunn na Piobaireachd (NZ) Inc Gold Medal competition. After playing and receiving a few pearls of wisdom Lewis got his pipes out and had a few tunes.His Old Men of the Shells on that occasion was as good as I have ever heard it played. On another occasion he played a
superb Lament for Patrick Og MacCrimmon; this tune moved so musically from beginning to end but
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