R.G. Hardie & Co bagpipe makers are playing a unique part in Battle’s Over, an international commemoration marking 100 years since the guns fell silent at the end of World War I.
Organised by Pageantmaster Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR, Battle’s Over takes place on November 11th 2018, with events throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and at scores of locations overseas, including New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, Bermuda, France, Belgium, Canada, the United States.
R.G. Hardie & Co are proud to contribute to this extraordinary event by donating the set of Peter Henderson Heritage Bagpipes that RAF Cadet Pipe Major Fergus McClintock will play at London’s Westminster Abbey on the day.
“We are delighted to present this new set of Peter Henderson Heritage Bagpipes to RAF Cadet
Alastair presents Cadet Pipe Major Fergus McClintock with his Peter Henderson Heritage Bagpipes
Pipe Major Fergus McClintock to play the Battles O’er at the grave of the unknown warrior at Westminster Abbey, at 6am on 11th November this year as part of Battle’s Over – A Nation’s Tribute,” said Alastair Dunn, Managing Director of R.G. Hardie & Co. “I’ve read that around two-thousand five hundred pipers served in the trenches in the Great War and of these, around one thousand one hundred – nearly half – were killed or wounded. It thus seems only fitting to remember their service and to mark such a solemn occasion, by presenting these pipes. But we can also look to the future. The pipes the men of the war played often survive today, in museums and as family heirlooms. It’s therefore comforting to think that these new Heritage bagpipes, and the memory they symbolise, could still be around for another hundred years.”
The day begins at 6am with lone pipers playing Battle’s O’er, a traditional Scottish air played after a battle, outside cathedrals in the country, following which a specially written tribute will be read out. At the same time, over 1,000 pipers will be playing the tune in individual locations within their local communities.
At 6.55pm buglers will sound the Last Post at more than 1,000 locations, where at 7pm beacons will be lit in a tribute called Beacons of Light, signifying the light of peace that emerged from the darkness of four years of war.
Then at 7.05pm over 1,000 church and cathedrals will ring their bells as part of Ringing Out for Peace organised in association with the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, which represents 65 societies of ringers from the British Isles and overseas. Also at 7.05, more than 140 town criers will perform a specially written Cry for Peace Around the World, the first of them in New Zealand and then across the globe through the various time zones.
More information on Battle’s Over can be found at www.brunopeek.co.uk
