Over the Chindwin to Lochaber

Pipe Major Evan Macrae was born on the Black Isle 21st February 1922 and brought up at Armadale, Sleat, Isle of Skye. He learned the pipes from John MacDonald the Ardvasar blacksmith. In 1942 he rejoined the 1st Camerons, and sailed with the Battalion to India. During 1944-45 he fought in the Burma Campaign, being appointed Pipe Major of the 1st Camerons in 1944. His well known march Over the Chindwin commemorates the crossing of the River Chindwin by the 79th in December 1944 during the advance after the battle of Kohima.This is not a war book, nor does it contain details of any war action. It is a collection of experiences he had from growing up in Skye and the West Highlands to finally retiring in Fort William, where he ended up as a peripatetic tutor of bagpipes.This is a memoir of a man who grew up with bagpipes, became a piper, served through several military conflicts while being a piper and ended up giving back as a gift to others, his love of the highland bagpipe.