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My pipe major when I was a
boy was Donald Rory Leslie, a native of Skye who had run away from home,
been turned back as too young by the Army, then ran away again this time to
sea, where he served as a cabin boy and later as man before the mast in the
old square-riggers, which were then still plying the seas.
When WW I broke out, he
served with the Camerons throughout the war, and later in the Irish
Rebellion in the 1920s.
 Donald
was a big man even in his old age, and a real Highlander! He was a
gaunt, rugged, craggy old man, then in his seventies, with the look of a
Highland eagle, a shock of white hair, and eyes as blue and chill as his
native lochs.
He was a stern Presbyterian,
and past Grand Master of both his Orange and Masonic lodges. He was a
skilled custom builder, and still worked hard every day.
Our band, though originally
started as the Clan MacGregor Society pipe band, was dressed, accoutred, and
armed as the Camerons of a century ago. Though we wore MacGregor kilts, our
cap badges and gear were Cameron.
Our pipe chanters were
Hendersons (many of them very old), because Donald said only Henderson still
made them "right", (i.e., with the flat-pitched sound that is so important
to Gaelic piping).
Our tunes were the great
tunes of the Cameron Regiment, which had included the favorites of the
Cameron clansmen who had first embodied the Regiment; "Gaibhaidh Sinn an
Rathad Mor" (We'll take the High Road"), played and sung by the Cameron clan
as they marched behind the Gentle Lochiel to join their Prince at Glenfinnan,
"The White Cockade", "Hey, Johnnie Cope" and "Over the Water to Charlie" ,
and many other Jacobite tunes, as well as the great tunes of Regimental
history, speaking of places they had been, and battles lost and won.
I remember him speaking of
Pipe Sergeant Kenneth MacKay of the 79th Cameron Highlanders at Quatre Bras,
part of the battle of Waterloo. When the French were trying their best to
break the Camerons' square, MacKay strode forth playing the famous
piobaireachd, "Cogadh no Sith" (War or Peace). His inspiration helped
the Camerons hold firm. Donald told us his story, then played for us "Cogadh
no Sith".
Speaking of that, if you
wonder what Donald might have looked like in his youth, a good
reference is the famous portrait entitled "Cogadh no Sith". It depicts
MacKay at Quatre Bras, MacKay's face is very similar to what I imagine
Donald's was at the same age. A strong, indeed, almost uncanny resemblence!
The tunes were all played in the very hard-core Gaelic style that
characterized the Camerons in the old days.
As you may know, the Camerons
were the last of the truly Highland Regiments, in that they had a
preponderance of Gaelic speakers.
Donald told us that in WW I,
they had ordered the Camerons to stop speaking Gaelic in the trenches, as it
had led to some men being injured when green English troops in the next
trench thought the Germans had gotten into the trenches!
He was a very hard-bitten,
dour old man. Sometimes if we would ask him where Dougal or one of the other
fellows was, he'd snap back; "Hanging on the barbed wire at Mons!"
After the Great War, he went
back to sea.
Once in a pub after a parade,
he was tossing back his Black & White scotch, and an ornery drunk started on
him - the usual - "Hey! Guys in skirts! What are you? Sissies?" etc. Donald
ignored the lout until he reached for his Cameron Officers' dirk.
Faster than you would
believe, it was out of its sheath and quivering in the top of the bar!
Donald growled, without even looking at the idiot; "Touch it again and
you'll be wearing it!" The drunk stumbled back, and his friends hustled him
out. Luckily for him!
He was a tremendous piper of
over 60 years experience, and could play the ceol mor (aka piobaireachd,
i.e.; Classical pipe music), with the familiarity of a Gael who also knew
the stories and the words.
Donald had a bout with
laryngeal cancer in the early 60s, and beat it. He had part of his larynx
removed, though, and spoke in a crusty, hoarse voice, like a loud whisper!
He had been told to quit
smoking and piping, but he told me (about 1963) that he would die piping.
That proved true. Some years
later, after I had left the area, I was told that he had a piping student
one evening, and that he had then gone into his study after the student
left. His wife later found him there, slumped over the table, his practice
chanter still in his hands.
He was generous also. The
small amount of money he took for tuition was put towards a set of pipes if
the pupil "graduated" into the band.
He had a son, Dougal, a US veteran of Korea who unfortunately predeceased
him, and Dougal had a son, also named Donald.
He was a tireless and
energetic man, a true son of the Gael, a stern taskmaster, and a great
teacher. I will always remember him.
Anyone with knowledge of or
contact with the family or kin, please contact me
Jim Taylor. I would like to get in
touch with them, as I have some interesting information for them about
Donald, and would like to see how his people are doing.
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