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tuomaskoivurinne — Piper James Richardson VC
Published: 2010-01-14 14:59:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 7116; Favourites: 156; Downloads: 149
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Description
acrylics 2009,October 8th 1916 in Regina Trench, Somme. The attack of the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) is being held up by intact barbed wire and taking heavy fire.
Piper James Richardson gets up and starts playing his bagpipes while walking back and forth in front of the wire in clear sight of the enemy.
This inspires the company to continue and the wire is crossed and the enemy position captured.
Later the piper was detailed to take back a wounded comrade and some prisoners, but after proceeding some distance he insisted on turning back to recover his pipes which he had left behind. He was never seen again and was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
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Comments: 13
Yup. We know that was the war, so we need the supports. I know. I like your arts about Great War 1914-1918, and I wish I could paint like you. I have some arts like that too... but it wasn't nice much like your arts.
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playing a bagpipe in a warzone of WW1, wat a badass.
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That was, and still is, the tradition of Scottish units in the British Army or in units of Commonwealth member-states with Scottish "ancestry".
Although, after the casualty rates began climbing too much, British High Command had a law passed that forbade pipers to go over the top with attacking troops, whether in first or in last, and forced them to stay in the trenches to play.
Of course, during the Second World War, Lord Lovat decided to simply dismiss this rule of the British Army and said, more or less humoristically, as justification that since the law had been published by English officers and he and his men were Scottish, it could not be applied to them.
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can u draw Daniel Laidlaw playing the pipes at the battle of loos
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Might do some day. I was originally balancing between him and Richardson. Then decided to go with this, as 1) this was made for a Canadian friend 2) you see several Laidlaws out there, but only few Richardsons.
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"Land of Song!" said the warrior bard,
"Tho' all the world betray thee,
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee!"
Minstrel Boy, by Thomas Moore
Very well done!
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"Shall I gi'e them wind?"
"Aye mon, gi'e them wind."
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I had to find and listen to "Reel of Tulloch" and "The Devil in the Kitchen" from Youtube to get into right mood. Must have been quite a sight. Thanks for the "heads-up!" on this one 
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Thanks mate. The postal service here is still backlogged - I only just now got a parcel that I mailed to myself from the States on December 1! 'Course, once it's in the system they don't seem to lose it.
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great history.
There are many stories of soldiers that tried to do something to boost morale in the trenches.
I heard that exist a book with all of them... but, I never found it.
nice work my friend.
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I think almost all Victoria Cross recipients and their actions can be found from Wikipedia. About this morale boost, there are couple of other pipers as well who received VC during the Great War. One was Piper Laidlaw, doing the same thing in Loos September 25th 1915, when the wind changed and the British gas was blown back at their trenches.
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