About Howard Arthur
My Story
In 1828, Allan MacLean was born on the Island of Rhum, Scotland. I was born in 1944 at Roma in Western Queensland, but despite the enormous distance and the years between the two events, and no doubt the ‘worlds apart’ lifestyles of the respective families, Allan MacLean was to become my Great Grandfather.
To this day, the connection between Allan MacLean and me is a set of bagpipes and a book of music
My Story Cont.
When I inherited the bagpipes (made by Alexander Glen, Edinburgh), I also received a music book entitled ‘A Collection of Highland Pipe Music’ by Angus Mackay.
It is a second edition (1839) publication of Piobaireachd , the ‘classical music’ of the highland bagpipe, and probably one of the first records of the printed form of this music.
It is the book which allows me to fairly reliably date the pipes, as I imagine young Allan would have been given the pipes and the book of music at around about the same time – when he was about 11 years old, 181 years ago, and counting!
My Story Cont.
Allan MacLean and his music book and pipe arrived in the Colony of Victoria in the second half of the 19th century where, by the 1870s, he had joined his cousin John MacLean on the property ‘Longerenong’ near Horsham, Victoria. Allan eventually married, and the first child of the marriage would become my grandmother when she married Hugh Arthur in 1901.
My father was the third of eleven children from this marriage. Neither he nor any of his siblings learnt to play the pipe, so it is nothing short of a miracle that the set survived intact (except for repairable damage to the chanter) from the time of Allan MacLean’s death in 1895 to 1999 when I inherited and began to learn the great highland bagpipe at the age of 55 years. I doubt there was anything further from my mind than to learn to play the pipe, or any other musical instrument for that matter, but my reasoning was: I had them so I might as well learn to play them! I have not regretted that reasoning for a moment.
My apologies for the family history lesson, but it illustrates the fragility of life’s happenings when the birth of a baby on the other side of the world eventually leads to someone learning to play the great highland bagpipe many thousands of miles away. For me, that began with the Caboolture City Highlanders Pipe Band, and continues now with the Pipes and Drums, National Servicemen’s Memorial Band, which I joined in about 2009. When I first started learning, I was absorbing all I could about bagpipes and their music, and I recall reading; “the making of a great piper is seven years hard practice and seven generations before him”. Not a very encouraging note! My first tutor was Jenny Henry from Caboolture Band, and later John Coombes, but always learning from the likes of Les Gray, Ian Millard, Doug Thoresen and other members of the Band – the agility of fingers permitting!!
I have thoroughly enjoyed many outings with the Band, but some of the most memorable for me would be the Drought Relief Tour of Western Queensland in 2015; the dedication of the National Service Memorial in Canberra in 2010; being the Lone Piper at the Victory in the Pacific 75th anniversary celebrations at Muckadilla (near Roma) on 15th August, 2020, and leading the Remembrance Day centenary march also at Muckadilla on 11th November, 2018. I have served as a member of the Management Committee of the Band, and am currently treasurer of the Band and very pleased to be part of a fine group of dedicated volunteer musicians.
"I have served as a member of the Management Committee of the Band, and am currently treasurer of the Band and very pleased to be part of a fine group of dedicated volunteer musicians".
Howard Arthur
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A living, musical memorial to those called to National Service in Australia