George Findlater
George Frederick Findlater | |
---|---|
Tirah Campaign World War I | |
Awards | Victoria Cross |
Sergeant George Frederick Findlater
After receiving the Victoria Cross, Findlater supplemented his Army pension by performing at music halls, much to the outrage of the military establishment, but after growing scandal he retired to take up farming in Banffshire in 1899. In 1914, he re-enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders for the First World War; he served as the senior piper for the 9th Battalion until the end of 1915, when he returned home because of ill health. Active in a local pipe band, he continued to farm until his death in 1942, aged 70.
Early life
Findlater was born in 1872 at
In December 1896 he was appointed as a
Dargai Heights
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Victoria_Cross_Winners-_Pre_1914_Q82656.jpg/220px-Victoria_Cross_Winners-_Pre_1914_Q82656.jpg)
On 20 October 1897, an attempt by a British force to take the strongly held
Findlater was evacuated to Rawalpindi where he was treated, and unable to continue in the Army as a result of his injuries, he was sent to Netley Hospital to convalesce. It was announced in May 1898 that he would receive the Victoria Cross, one of four men to be so honoured for actions at Dargai, and was personally decorated by Queen Victoria at Netley on 14 May, a few days before he was formally discharged from the Army.[1]
'During the attack on the Dargai Heights on 20 October 1897, Piper Findlater, after being shot through both feet and unable to stand, sat up, under a heavy fire, playing the Regimental March to encourage the charge of the Gordon Highlanders.'[5]
Public celebrity
The Gordons' charge at Dargai had caught the imagination of the British public, and the romantic description of the wounded piper encouraging his comrades on was perhaps the most famous element of it. Whilst recovering, Findlater received a large number of public donations, including sets of bagpipes, and by at least one account, a proposal of marriage.
Whilst popular with the crowds, Findlater was seen by many of the military establishment as deliberately profiting from the Victoria Cross. The War Office approached the management of the Alhambra to try and stop his performance, without success,[7] sparking counter-criticism as to whether the Army had any standing to control the private engagements of a man who had already left the Army. Within the year, however, his fame began to turn sour; he was implicated in a contentious breach of promise lawsuit in late 1898, which led to heckling at his Scottish performances,[6] and to avoid further scandal left the country to tour the United States and Canada.[1]
Later life
Following his return from North America, Findlater married his cousin Helen at Turriff in August 1899. A year later, he took up the tenancy of a farm at Forglen, where he and Helen settled to begin a family; they would have five children, two sons and three daughters.[1]
At the start of the
Legacy
![Medal collection of George Findlater VC](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Piper_George_Findlater_VC.jpg/220px-Piper_George_Findlater_VC.jpg)
Whilst his moment of personal celebrity was fleeting, Findlater remained a popular figure in the public memory, continuing to be a subject of artwork and stories for some years. He was the focal point of Edward Hale's painting Piper Findlater winning the VC (1897),[9] Stanley Berkeley's Charge of the Gordon Highlanders (1897), Vereker Hamilton's Piper Findlater at Dargai (1898),[6] Richard Caton Woodville's The Storming of Dargai Heights (1898) and Robert Gibb's Dargai (1909).[10] Findlater's playing at Dargai, along with the charge itself, became one of the more well-remembered moments of the Gordons' regimental history; they later applied for the Dargai Heights to be recognised as a battle honour, the only one of the nine participating regiments to do so, but were declined.[11]
One of the "Dand MacNeil" stories in George MacDonald Fraser's The General Danced at Dawn concerns an animated discussion in the Sergeants Mess concerning exactly what tune Piper Findlater did play at the Dargai Heights, Findlater himself not being positive what it had been.
See also
- Bill Millin, a piper who played during the D-Day landings in 1944
- Daniel Laidlaw, awarded the Victoria Cross for piping his battalion forward at the Battle of Loos in 1915
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Spiers (2008)
- ^ Key dates in British Education (1000–1899) ThePotteries.org
- ^ a b Bagpipes in War, Greg Allen.
- ^ Text of The Haughs O' Cromdale
- ^ "No. 26968". The London Gazette. 20 May 1898. p. 3165.
- ^ a b c Spiers (2006), p. 126.
- ^ "Piper Findlater, V.C.". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 13 June 1898. col. 34–36.
- ^ Spiers (2008); Baker, Chris (2009). "History of the 15th (Scottish) Division, 1914–1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
- JSTOR 1360292.
- JSTOR 25478029.
- ^ Baker (1986), p. 280.
References
- Baker, Anthony (1986). Battle Honours of the British and Commonwealth Armies. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. ISBN 0-7110-1600-3.
- Spiers, Edward M. (2006). The Scottish soldier and empire, 1854–1902. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-2354-X.
- Spiers, Edward M. (October 2008). "Findlater, George Frederick (1872–1942)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/96873. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
Further reading
- Cross, Craig (2007). Piper Findlater, V.C.: The Hero of Dargai. ISBN 978-0-9553105-0-8.