Scottish Gallery

How Piper Laidlaw won the Victoria Cross on September 25, 1915, (c1920). Creator

How Piper Laidlaw won the Victoria Cross on September 25, 1915, (c1920). Playing the 7th King's Own Scottish Borderers out of their trenches at the Battle of Loos in the midst of the gas attack'. During the Battle of Loos in northern France, British soldier Daniel Laidlaw (1875-1950) played his bagpipes to encourage the men of his regiment. He was awarded the Victoria Cross by King George V on 3 February 1916: For most conspicuous bravery prior to an assault on German trenches near Loos and Hill 70...During the worst of the bombardment, Piper Laidlaw, seeing that his company was badly shaken from the effects of gas, with absolute coolness and disregard of danger, mounted the parapet, marched up and down and played company out of the trench. The effect of his splendid example was immediate and the company dashed out to the assault. Piper Laidlaw continued playing his pipes until he was wounded. Laidlaw was also awarded the Croix de Guerre by France

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The Gordon Highlanders. How Piper Findlater won the V.C. at Dargai, 1897, (1939)

The Gordon Highlanders. How Piper Findlater won the V.C. at Dargai, 1897, (1939). The Storming of the Dargai Heights by the 1st Gordon Highlanders and the Gurkhas, 1897. Fighting between British troops and Afridi tribesmen on the North-West Frontier (a province of British India and later of Pakistan) on 20 October 1897, during the Tirah Campaign. Four Victoria Crosses were awarded after the action. One of the recipients was piper George Findlater who continued to play to encourage his battalion's advance, despite having been wounded. From Battles for the Flag, a set of cards given away with British boys comic The Wizard. [D. C. Thomson & Co. Dundee, 1939]

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The Martyr of the Solway, 1871, (c1902). Creator: Unknown

The Martyr of the Solway, 1871, (c1902). After a painting in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Margaret Wilson (c1667-1685), a young Scottish Presbyterian, refused to swear an oath declaring King James VII (James II of England) as Head of the Church. She and a friend were chained to stone stakes in the Solway Firth and executed by drowning. From The Nation's Pictures. A selection from the finest modern paintings in the public picture galleries of Great Britain, reproduced in colour. [Cassell and Company Ltd, London, c1902]

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