LETTERS My Father, John Maclean,Quee Sir, I write in response to a letter from
Dr Christian Grosser, Germany. He had enquired who might have owned the set of MacDougall pipes he bought in 2006. John Maclean, of Hougharry, North Uist, owned these pipes.He was born in 1922 and was a piper in the 5th Battalion of the 51st Highland Division, the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders, serving from 1938 until 1946.He saw active service in North Africa, Sicily and northern Europe,
including France and
Germany. He piped at ElAlamein and in the
Victory Parade in Bremerhaven [he is pictured below in the centre of the front rank]. There is a well known photograph of the four pipers of St Valery (when the town was retaken)
and Piper Maclean was on the far right of that group. After the war,while he worked on
the mainland, he taught and encouraged many young pipers. When, eventually, he returned to live and work in North Uist, he became President of the island Piping Society and continued his mission to promote the instrument. He was also on the North Uist Games Committee, helping to organise the piping competitions. I believe Archie Maclean, who
contributed the article which prompted this correspondence, has judged on Hosta machair at his invitation. John Maclean had a lifelong love for pipe music. Inverness to Dunskellar [below right] is a short
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