By James McWilliams – Surrey, B.C.
I grew up in Moose Jaw until I joined the Canadian Army the day after my 18th birthday.
After years as a soldier, then a student at three universities, a social worker in Swift Current, and a high school teacher in Calgary, I returned to spend what I figured was the rest of my life, in my beloved Moose Jaw to teach at Peacock and Riverview high schools.
I also became the pipe major of the local boys’ pipe band for almost three decades (also known as The St. Andrew’s Society BPB, then The Optimist BPB, then The White Hackle).
I was also one of the two local band directors who convinced Premier Ross Thatcher (also of Moose Jaw) to start The Saskatchewan Summer School of The Arts, which he established in Fort Qu’Appelle.
A photo of my first public performance as a piper in the St. Andrew’s Society Boys’ Pipe Band in Moose Jaw, was taken in 1951 by The Moose Jaw Times Herald when Princess Elizabeth (our future Queen) visited Moose Jaw on a snowy evening during her tour of Canada. I was a 13-year-old piper, the youngest of the 18-member junior band.
At the moment the photo was taken we were playing, Will Ye No Come Back Again, a traditional farewell song of Scotland. I still have my own personal memory of Princess Elizabeth flashing her warm and lovely smile at me a few seconds before the photo was taken.
Also shown in the photo is the mayor of Moose Jaw, Louis “Scoop” Lewry, and beside me, two of our young drummers, Wayne Greentree, and Everett Andrews, who was later known as the magician, The Great Andreeni.
