Bagpipes, c 1939 - 1945
Bagpipes of Eric Moss, 2nd Battalion, played by him prior to the Second World War and during his years of captivity in various Second World War Japanese Prisoner of War (POW) camps. Eric joined the Regiment as a boy in 1924 and his piping talents saw him rise to the position of Pipe-Major. He resigned from the positioned on being commissioned as an officer. After the war the bag cover and internal piping bag were replaced with a new leather bag which was then covered in a family tartan cloth.
“I played them several times at funerals (in the POW camps), but in the awful weather they almost rotted away”. Major Eric Moss
On one occasion to boost moral the prisoners held a concert and Eric was asked to play his bagpipes. Unfortunately, by then all that remained was the chanter and drones (pipes), the cover and bag having disintegrated.
“I got a skin from the cookhouse; I cured it and cut it into the right shape. I took an Indian carpet to bits for the thread, got wax out of a wild bees’ nest and got a Dutch shoemaker (a POW) who sewed it up with the thread and wax. I seasoned it with palm tree sugar and got these pipes going and played at the concert quite successfully…” Major Eric Moss