SUBSCRIBE Obituary: Winter Taylor


ONE of the leading lights of The National Piping Centre’s summer school in Atlanta has died. Respected piper and instructor Winter “Winkie”


Taylor passed away on January 22 following a severe stroke.


Winter began her piping career at the age of 12 in Huntington, West Virginia.


Her primary piping instructor was John Mac- Fadyen, but she also had sessions with a ‘who’s who’ of the piping world including Sandy Jones, Duncan MacFadyen, Hamilton Workman, John Recknagel, Sandy Keith, Mike Cusack, Alasdair Gillies and Roddy MacLeod.


As a solo piper, Winter enjoyed a successful career, progressing through the ranks to the professional level, where she competed successfully for several years before retiring from competition. While Winter did not plan it this way, she was a pioneer in her early piping career, helping to blaze the trail for the many female pipers who now routinely perform and compete on the solo stage and with pipe bands at all levels.


In college, Winter took the helm as pipe major for the University of Iowa Pipe Band, touring England and Scotland during her tenure there. Later she took over as pipe major for the Caledonian Pipes & Drums of Cincinnati, Ohio.


In the 1980s, she moved to Dunedin, Florida and played with the City of Dunedin Pipe Band, the highest ranked band in the South (Grade 2). She competed with Dunedin several times in the World Pipe Band Championships.


Winter moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1994 and joined the Atlanta Pipe Band’s Grade 3 competition unit, and served as their Secretary for more than ten years. She also served as the piping instructor for its Grade 5 unit.


During this same period she was the primary organiser of the annual Southeastern piping and drumming workshops sponsored by the Eastern US Pipe Band Association.


Winter Taylor


More recently, she established the Atlanta Piping Foundation Inc, non-profit foundation to provide scholarships for deserving pipers and to support the promotion of Scottish music in the Southeast. In addition to providing individual instruction to pipers at all levels, over the last four years she worked with The National Piping Centre to conduct a week- long school in Atlanta for pipers and drummers from all over the Southeast.


The fifth annual school will be held in Atlanta in June 2012.


Letter: The Tale of El Alamein


I was interested to read in Grey’s Notes in Is- sue 54 of Piping Today the comments on the 6/8 march El Alamein.


I remember when the tune was selected as winner of the competition to compose a march to commemo- rate the desert victory. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the story of the tune but I’ll relate the tale in case you haven’t. When the news of the competition was sent around the various units, I was stationed at Carronbridge in Dumfriesshire but I knew some of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers pipers and one, Patsy Milligan, later told me how the tune came about. Patsy’s wife had given birth to triplets and in the


KOSB band was well-known piper Willie Bryson. For a bit of fun, WIllie composed a two-parted 6/8, known variously as The Three Wee Milligans or A. E. and M. Milligan.


The tune was passed around but finished up in the bundle of loose sheets of music which all Army


bands seem to accumulate. One day, Pipe Major Willie Denholm was sorting through the pile and came across Willie Bryson’s tune.


He was quite taken with it and suggested to Bryson that he (Denholm) would compose another two parts and enter the tune jointly in the competition. If it won they would share the £100 prize money 50/50. Willie Bryson agreed and the tune won. However,


Bryson’s name is never mentioned in connection with El Alamein. Ironically, Willie Denholm composed The Royal


Scots Polka as a two-part tune. When he was Pipe Major of the Royal Scots depot band at Dreghorn (I think), he was greeted home from Hong Kong by the 1st Battalion of the Royal Scots playing The Royal Scots Polka as a four-part tune.


Colin Campbell


(Ex Cpl piper, 2nd Royal Scots) Workington Cumbria


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