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 SOLDIER OF THE MONTH
Pipe Major Sanderson B.E.M.
1st Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
Born in Edinburgh, Jimmy Sanderson joined the Cameronians on October 13th 1919, aged 17. He had previously enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in the latter years of the Great War, but had to be bought out by his mother when it was discovered he had been too young to enlist.
Jimmy had a long and distinguished career with the Regiment, serving with the 1st Battalion in Ireland, India, Egypt and Hong Kong. He spent a total of 18 years serving in the Middle East and Far East.
Having trained at the Royal School of Music in Edinburgh, Jimmy became an accomplished Piper in the Battalion, winning several Piping competitions in both individual and team events. He successfully represented the Regiment at several larger tournaments and also had the distinction of training one of the first Gurkha Pipe Bands.
A keen and gifted sportsman, Jimmy featured regularly in the prize lists at Battalion sporting events. He was particularly good at Highland Games events, and won several medals for Tossing the Caber. A man large in stature, he was also proficient on the rugby field. In one match of the Officers and Sergeants vs. the Other Ranks in India in 1937, Jimmy was described as a
“fighting demon…striking terror in the hearts of the Other Ranks.”
On this occasion the Officers and Sergeants emerged from the muddy field victorious, Sergeant Sanderson scoring the crucial try.
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Captain Lindsay-Clark sculpting the Regimental Memorial |
At a Regimental Dinner in 1922, Piper Sanderson caught the eye of the sculptor commissioned to design the Regimental Memorial commemorating all men of the Regiment who lost their lives in the Great War. On being introduced to the sculptor by the Colonel of the Regiment, Jimmy was asked if he would mind posing as the model for the central figure; that of the Sergeant advancing, rifle-in-hand, across the body of the fallen officer. At the re-dedication ceremony of the Memorial in August 1958, Pipe Major Sanderson, then of Queen Victoria’s School, Dunblane, had the honour of playing the Lament. He would later joke;
“There can’t be many people who have played in front of their ‘own’ statue.”
Pipe Major Sanderson spent more than 20 years at Queen Victoria’s School where he taught piping and highland dancing. He would often lead the school Pipe Band before matches at Murrayfield and Hampden, as well as at the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh. In 1959 Jimmy was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Piping, and in 1963 was presented with a quaich by the Scottish Rugby Union.
He died on 29th June 1983, aged 81 years.
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© Colour image of James Sanderson courtesy of the Sanderson family. Other text and images copyright of South Lanarkshire Council Museums Service. |
