member of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders but in 1942 had been attached to the Indian Assam Regiment, operating in the north eastern corner of India bordering Myanmar (Burma). LtYoung and his company of just over 100 men were ordered to the village of Kharasom, 35 miles to the east of Kohima, to stop the Japanese from advancing further and told to fight ‘to the last man and the last bullet’. A total of 56 men from LtYoung’s
company reached Kohima two days after their withdrawal from their position at Kharasom – but without their commanding officer.The attacks on Kohima lasted 64 days, and, in
O
NE of the students at the College of Piping Winter School, Norman Welz of
Baden-Baden, has presented the set of pipes on the front page to the Museum of Piping at the College, writes Jeannie Campbell. They are a 1749 three-quarters or half set which has been in his family for decades. They were given to him by his grandfather and now he wants them to go on show for the benefit of pipers everywhere. It seems they belonged to a Scots soldier from the Pitlochry area named Hamish Wal- lace.He was a bondsman to the Duke of Atholl and seconded to fight for the Hapsburgs in Austria in the 18th century. He met and married a local woman and stayed in Austria before the family moved to Germany.There
June 1944, with the onset of the monsoon rains and with supplies running out, the Japanese retreated. Thousands had died on both sides. But India still stood, and the British 14th Army under General William Slim was able to return to the offensive and march into the occu- pied Burma. Today, a war cemetery stands in Kohima, where LtYoung is remembered. Despite the praise given to the bravery of LtYoung at the time, he was never awarded any medal beyond the basic set given to all who served in theatre during that time. Sadly both his parents died without knowing the full heroic circumstances of their son’s death.
Museum of Piping Acquires Rare Bagpipe
‘We now have a pipe dating from only three years after Culloden . . .’
has always been piping in Norman’s family and he can remember his grandfather singing the Company’s Lament to him. So here we have a strand of Scottish tradition going back hundreds of years and rooted in Austro-Germany. It is remarkable that we now have a pipe dating from only three years after Culloden and in pretty good condition after lying in a shed for hundreds of years.
The pipes are of a light wood, possibly from a fruit tree and the ferrules are of bone. Some ferrules have been replaced and are obviously not the work of a craftsman.The chanter still plays reasonably well. The pipes can be viewed free of charge in the museum by anyone interested in them and the Museum is extremely grateful to MrWelz for his generosity.