Visitor Comments

Hello,
First of all, I would like to thank you for posting my previous comments and I promise not to take up much more of your time, but I just wanted to pass on to you this small item of interest.

I am the pipe major of the City of Thorold Pipe Band in Ontario Canada, and we were founded twenty years ago by a former piper of the Black Watch, Mr. James V. Greig of Edinburgh.

It was always Jimmy's proudest boast that he served in the Black Watch...a claim he valued even more than the many awards and championships he won as a piper in the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band, and as pipe major of the famed Clan MacFarlane Pipe Band of St.Catharines, Ontario.

Were Jimmy alive today, I know how mortified he would be, not only over the imminent demise of his old Regiment, but over The Queen's apparent endorsement of this sad act by her bestowing the title "Royal" on the new "Super Regiment".

By way of protesting Her Majesty's complicity in this regrettable chain of events, we in The City of Thorold Pipe Band decided last evening to remove the Royal Cypher of Queen Elizabeth II from our Drum Major's baldric, and replace it with the Coat of Arms of Canada.

A small protest to be sure, but an important one nonetheless to us. We don't pretend that by withholding her consent for use of the word "Royal" in the title of the new regiment the Queen would have been able to prevent the amalgamation of the Scottish Regiments. But such a gesture on her part would have meant a great deal to all of the men and women (serving or otherwise) in the U.K. and around the world who so adamantly oppose the M.O.D.'s plans to destroy the old regiments, and I feel it would also have been a meaningful tribute to her mum, who I am certain would have supported her soldiers in their time of need.

Kindest Regards,

Mitchell McDowell,
Canada
30 November 2005