Saturday Sepia on Sunday – Pipers

I don’t usually participate in the Saturday Sepia posts as I’ve often felt I don’t have enough suitable old photos. However the moment I saw the prompt for #158 I knew I had to take part (even though the photo has been hand tinted). After all it did feature Scottish pipers of which I have more than my share in my family tree.

This photo is of my grandmother’s brother, Duncan McCorkindale. It was given to me by my father’s cousin about 20 years ago and she has recorded the details from the back of her copy – interesting as none of the others have similar notations. I wrote about the McCorkindale brothers, all expert pipers, in my Trove Tuesday post here but on reflection Duncan’s story would deserve a future post as well, but not today.

Duncan and his brother Peter left Glasgow for Australia in June 1900 so logically the photo must have been taken before then. Certainly Duncan looks quite young and his emigration records (and his birth) show his age as 25. Both he and Peter were joiners, an occupation that would lead Duncan to the Australian nation’s capital, Canberra, to help with its establishment and construction, though online reports suggest he had a reputation for severity as a boss.

Along the way Duncan also was instrumental (smile!) in the establishment of the Caledonian Society in Canberra, a judge with their Highland Games in 1925 and 1927, and was an elder with the Presbyterian church.

The meeting commenced at 8 p m. (?) but shortly before that time the skirl of the bagpipes played by Mr. D. McCorkindale were heard in the clear still moonlight and attracted many.[i]

Duncan died a gruesome death in a Sydney road accident in 1928 when he was only 54.

---

[i] Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate 12 March 1925, page 2