Thread by @cocteautriplets

I took a punt in the charity shop and splashed out 79p on a nondescript but intriguing little book. And boy, am I glad I did, because it relates the most incredible life story, which I will now relay to you. This thread is about Bessie Watson, the Suffragette Piper Girl 🧵

Elizabeth (Bessie) Banner Watson was born in Edinburgh 1900 to Agnes Newton and Horatio Watson - a bookbinder. The family lived at 11 the Vennel, off the Grassmarket, in Bessie's own words "in the very shadow of the castle".

Like many children of the Old Town, Bessie's health suffered from the side-effects of her environs, "inclined to be hen-toed and bandy legged". When home remedies of salt water rubs failed to strengthen her legs, her mother signed her up for Highland dancing classes with "Andra"

She took happily to dancing and competed around the Lothians. However, age 6, Andra fell ill with "just a cold" but was soon dead from Consumption - the Tuberculosis which stalked Edinburgh for victims. A new teacher was found, Pipe Major Sutherland

Sutherland was a much more formal and stricter teacher than Andra, and concentrated on Highland dancing by the book. But the great treat for Bessie was that he accompanied her on the pipes, and she instantly fell in love with the instrument, aged just 7

Tragedy struck again at this time, when Bessie's aunt Margaret Newton, who lived with the family, fell victim to the Consumption and rapidly followed Andra to her grave. Bessie's mother fretted for her frail daughter, and sought the advice of friends and a doctor.

It was resolved that Bessie's lungs needed strengthening, and the doctor recommended the advice of his coachman, a piper, and it was decided that the little girl should become a piper too, purely for the benefit of her health. She was secretly thrilled.

Pipe Major Sutherland was sceptical, but was eventually convinced to teach her the pipes rather than dancing. A specially made "baby chanter" had to be ordered from Alexander Glen on the Mound as her hands were too small even for the smallest size.

Bessie could already read music and soon was learning from the Pipe Major's own manuscript music. Before long she was read for the bag and full set of pipes. She and her teacher were sceptical at the smallest size, and decided to go straight to a half adult sized set

The set were huge for her, and she struggled to inflate them, so the Pipe Major had to inflated them for her, but it was a testament to the strength of her "weak lungs" that after this she could keep them filled.

The Pipe Major was the verger of St. Vincent's Episcopal Church in the New Town, and before she knew it, Bessie could play with all her drones and was on the bill at church hall concerts in larger letters as MISS BESSIE WATSON - THE YOUNGEST LADY PIPER IN SCOTLAND

But tragedy struck again. The week after her 9th birthday, her younger brother - Horatio - fell ill too. Within 2 days, he had died, aged just 3. The family were devastated and in her own words, Bessie felt "very lost and lonely for a while".

But soon something happened that would lift the family's spirit, and change Bessie's life for good. One day, she and her parents were walking down Queensferry Street when they passed the window of a shop used by the Women's Social & Political Union: the suffragettes.

After a brief discussion between her parents, Bessie's mother took her inside, and when they walked out they left as members. The sash in the photo in the previous tweet belonged to Bessie herself.

The Union were looking for helpers for a grand parade in Edinburgh in October that year (1909) and when it was found that Bessie was a piper there was no question that she shouldn't take part in it - she wore that sash as a tabard and piped from a float

Bessie wasn't the only woman piping that day, but she was by far the youngest. May Watson from Leith played, as did 5 girls from Dr. Kelso's "Lothian Lasses" pipe band in Broxburn.

As a brief aside, Dr. Kelso's "Lothian Lasses" can easily claim to be the first all girl pipe band, forming in 1904 when Broxburn's village Doctor, who took highland dancing classes, decided he should teach the girls the pipes too.

A few weeks later, Bessie met suffragette leader Christabel Pankhurst in Edinburgh, and was presented with a broach in the shape of Queen Boadicea by here as a token of gratitude. Bessie "fell in love with her, and she was to be one of my idols in the years to follow"

Bessie filled the void in their life caused by the loss of her brother with the WPSU. In June 1911, she was invited with some of the other women pipers to join the Scottish contingent in the June 17th suffragette march in London that coincided with King George V's coronation

Aged just 11, Bessie found herself in London leading out the Scottish contingent, with the male pipers behind her, ahead of the Royal Standard of Scotland. The most incredible and powerful photo was taken of that moment.

Please don't tell me that this isn't one of the most stunning and defining Scottish political photos of the 20th century. Bessie has Christabel Pankhurst's brooch around her neck, I believe, and a WPSU celtic knot badge on her sash.

Back in Edinburgh, Bessie would race home from school, collect her pipes, and then march up and down outside the Calton Jail, piping for the women imprisoned within. She would play wherever she could when the women were being released, and she would pipe prisoners on their way in

She clearly had friends in high places, as the Education Authority gave her special dispensation to leave school early to pipe or to take leave of absence to attend weekday meetings.

In 1913 Bessie was invited aboard the cruiser HMS Natal in the Firth of Forth to pipe and was made ship's mascot, being given a cap tally to hang on her pipes. She took it off 2 years later when she heard the Natal had blown up at her moorings in the Cromarty Firth

By this time she was piping with the Highland Society, its only female member. With the outbreak of war the following year, Christabel Pankhurst told her followers to suspend their activities and support the war effort, and Bessie did exactly as her hero asked of her.

Keen to find a way to help, Bessie didn't have to wait long. One day she and her father saw a tram car that had been fitted out as a mobile recruiting office and was driven around the city. There was a piper on board to call the men to arms.

Above the noise of the pipes and the crowd, she said in her dad's ear "I think I could play as well as that if I got the chance". Once it was established she was not joking, her father was persuaded to speak to the recruiting sergeant, who was persuaded to speak to his lieutenant

And so it was that Bessie Watson, aged 15, went to war as the piper for the Edinburgh Recruiting car. She played 2 - 6 times a week, every week, until voluntary recruitment was replaced with conscription and the recruiting parties were surplus to requirements.

She received no official recognition for her efforts, but the men of the Recruiting Office presented her with a practice chanter in African Blackwood and solid silver, inscribed:
"Presented to Miss Bessie Watson... as a memento of the Recruiting Campaign in Edinburgh 1915-1916"

She joined the "East Edinburgh Pipers" in Abbeyhill, welcomed into a men's band on account of how many members they had lost to the war, and soon found her trophy cabinet filling up - winning the Walker Cup and the Murray Cup 🏆🏆

When a German Zeppelin bombed Edinburgh and Leith in April 1916, Bessie was woken by the drone of engines and the explosions of bombs. She admitted that her first though was for the Walker Cup, removing it from her shelf and hiding under the bed with it threadinburgh.scot/2022/09/23/the…

After the war, Bessie went to the University to take an Ordinary Degree towards becoming a school teacher. She piped for the Women's Celtic Society who were only too pleased to no longer have to ask one of the male students to play at their events.

It was at this time that she was taken under the wing of Roderick Campbell, one of the best civilian pipers of his day, who introduced her to the skill of Pibroch playing - not something usually allowed of women pipers then.

Campbell introduced her to Pipe Major G. S. Maclennan, a former child piper, the youngest Pipe Major in the army and a legend in piping circles. He was so impressed, he promised to teach her for free if only she would let others know "the bagpipe is really a great instrument"

Campbell and Maclennan gave Bessie a life long love of the "Piobaireachd". She repaid her debt to Maclennan by piping a Pibroch for the great Hungarian violinist, Carl Flesch - a Jew who had fled Nazi Germany - in 1936 at a music school he taught her at.

Bessie was by this time a qualified secondary school music teacher in Alva, but war clouds were looming in Europe and her days of Girl Guiding and piping for the recruitment tram in Edinburgh led her back to the military, and she joined the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service)

When the ATS found they had a piper in their ranks, she was made the official piper for the service (there being no others). It was while training with the ATS at Barry in Arbroath that she earned her next piping "first".

In the field next to the ATS were the men of the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders - a highland regiment with a proud piping tradition, but who had neglected to bring their pipers to camp. So Bessie was selected to pipe in the regimental dinner, the first woman to do so.

The Company Sergeant Major of the Seaforths however refused her the privilege of playing a Pibroch for the officers - saying it was an honour for only Pipe Majors. In her autobiography she writes of her regret at not telling him she was the equal of any Pipe Major in the army.

Bessie piped wherever she could in amongst her teaching and ATS duties, playing many concerts to raise money for those bombed out of their houses by air raids. After the war she returned to Edinburgh, married, and took up a job at Broughton High school.

It was at Broughton that she instituted another piping first; forming the first state school pipe band in Scotland, with the help of the former Pipe Major of the Edinburgh City Police, Hance Gates, and a drumming teacher, James Catherwood.

The authorities helpfully supplied the chanters, 6 sets of pipes, two side drums a tenor and a bass drum and music (The Seaforth Highlander's Collection was chosen!) The budget did not extend to kilts, which had to be begged, borrowed and scrounged from around the school

Bessie led the @BroHighOfficial pipe band for 27 years. When the old premises on McDonald Road were vacated in 1970, she piped the school out, returning to the empty building to play a Pibroch on each of its silent floors.

The move from Broughton to Stockbridge and the retirement of the teaching helpers saw the pipe band begin to dwindle, and not even Bessie's force of personality and passion for it could keep it going and it eventually closed down.

She was later furious to hear of one of her former band pupils had gone on to form a pipe band at Craigmount High School (my old haunt), and tell the press that it was the first state school pipe band in Scotland, and wrote him a stern, teacherly rebuke.

Bessie Somerville died in 1992, aged 91, not long after finishing her incredible little autobiography. She donated her pipes, ephemera and music to the Scottish Piping Centre, who published her book. She ended it as she began it:

In 2019, a plaque was arranged for Bessie by the @6VTYouthCafe at no. 11 Vennel, who occupy the address where she grew up, unveiled by then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, appropriately led out by a young woman playing the pipes

I'm going to go visit the plaque first chance I get. Bessie's life story - told from her humble but undoubtedly proud point of view - is so incredible, I turned the little book from page to page wondering where it would go next and how I had never until now heard of her 🔚

If you'd prefer to read this as a single blog-post page, you can do so over at threadinburgh dot scot be following the link 🔗👉 threadinburgh.scot/2023/08/31/the…

OK if you made it this far you probably enjoyed Bessie's story, and you might just also enjoy the story of the pioneering Edinburgh Lady Dynamos women's football team. threadinburgh.scot/2023/08/21/the…