Bruce Beach Kilties

2008 year marks 100 years of the Kincardine Scottish Pipe Band and there are many events in 2008 to mark this centenary. The band was started by William Young, a Kincardine barber, in 1908 and the following year, it first performed on the streets of Kincardine with five pipers, four drummers and a drum major, wearing the McKenzie tartan. To commemorate this anniversary, this year's historic note is on Bruce Beach connections to the band.

Generations of Bruce Beachers have headed into town on Saturday nights to follow the band down the main street and back again to Victoria Park for a concert. Basil McCarthy (see below) has written that the idea for a parade down the main street originated during WWII when band members began playing on corners to raise money by a can and a sign which read "Buy smokes for the boys overseas". The parade became institutionalized in 1948. But these original parades involvoured only the band members marching up and down the road while local policemen stopped all traffic on the only north south highway along the lake shore. Both David Wilson (12A) and Mary Savage (64) independently recounted to me that it was children from Bruce Beach who started the tradition of marching behind the band in the early 50s. A photo in Ian MacEachern's 1983 A History of Bruce Beach supports this, showing a preteen Dawn MacEachern (then 32) and Liz and Carol Finlayson (then 39) walking immediately behind the drummers. Some of this cohort never gave up following the band and now people of all ages, some with family members on their shoulders, join the parade.

But some Beachers have done more than merely walk behind or watch the band from the sidewalks; many have joined it or been welcomed as guest drummers and pipers when they are vacationing here. For the record, I want to record these kilties. If you know of some that I have missed, I would appreciate learning their names in order that they can be added to a list which will be in our archives. My apologies if I have overlooked anyone.

Our most high ranking Bruce Beach bagpiper, and rank is very important in a pipe band, is Watson Morris (165). Around 1980, Watson started taking lessons from the then Kincardine Pipe Major Henry Lamont. A few years after joining the band, Watson served as its Pipe Major in 1992-1993.

Our most distinguished family in terms of numbers and history with the band is the Wilson clan. Ian Wilson (2A/11A) played the pipes with the band at least as early as 1956 and his nephew, David (12A), like Watson took lessons from Henry Lamont in 1983 and is now one of the longest standing members of the band. David has also been instrumental with the origin of a “Band Room” and its display in the Walker House. Later, Sharon Wilson took up the tenor drum and since 2002, she too marched up and down Queen Street on Saturday nights.

We have many other contributors to this Saturday night ritual. Both the Roulston twins (45), with Peter on the pipes and Philip on the drums, played with the band. Our association past-president, Bob Cunningham (109) has marched with the band as have John Goodenow (53), Bob Jamieson (74), George Johnston (17A), Bob McFarlane (148 Gordon St.), David Marshall (138 Gordon St.), Jim Murray (62), Amy Sled (159), Annzley Clark (100) and Graeme Henderson (124 Gordon St.). Stretching things only slightly, we can add Leslie Ray. She spent her summers at Bruce Beach where her parents rented cottage number 5 for about 35 years and she continues to live in the area and to play with the band.

In addition to helping in making the music, a few Beachers have danced the highland fling in full dress to the pipes in Victoria Park. Peggy and Kathy Goodenow (53) come to mind in this regard.

The inclusion of Beachers in this Kincardine tradition has often been reciprocated by Kincardine band members. They have performing both formally and informally at many beach functions, including: the Bruce Beach BBQ, Canada Day parties, chivarees, milestone birthdays, dedications at the golf course and similar events in the various groves, and at weddings.

In addition, Beachers have enjoyed, or endured depending on your taste, many informal solo and small group concerts with pipers and drummers playing along the beach or on the road behind the cottages. These unscheduled musical interludes are provided by both Beachers and band members from the surrounding areas.

It is to be hoped that the good relations and good times engendered by the Kincardine Scottish Pipe Band and its Bruce Beach connections will continue for the next 100 years.

Those wishing to read more about the history of the band and see some very interesting historic photographs could read former Pipe Major Basil McCarthy’s commemorative volume, The Kincardine Scottish Pipe Band: The First Century, published in 2007. Frances Stewart,