One of Scotland’s most magnificent pipers, Pipe Major lain Murdo Morrison of Back, Lewis, has died, aged 74 years, after a spell of ill health.
He passed away in Lewis on Thursday afternoon.
As a youngster he took up the chanter, receiving tuition from the famous military piper P/M Donald Macleod of Stornoway.
P/M Morrison also became an army man himself, enlisting as a teenager in 1963 with the Queen’s Own Highlanders.
Over the years he amassed numerous prizes for his musical excellence, notably the highly coveted gold medal at the Northern Meeting, the most prestigious piping competition in the world, in 1969 by which time he was a piper corporal.
Eleven years later he won the Gold Clasp at the Inverness event, a competition reserved for former gold medal holders. Further success followed when he clinched the Gelnfiddich championship title that same autumn.
By then he had been appointed pipe major of the regiment. He taught future pipers at military piping schools at Dreghorn Barracks, Edinburgh, and also in Bridge of Don by Aberdeen.
Widely respected for his knowledge of the instrument, he was always in demand as a senior judge at bagpiping competitions and recitals across Scotland, North America and Australia.
After returning to civilian life, he took up the role of schools’ piping instructor in Lewis and became a stalwart of the Lewis and Harris Piping Society.
In 1993, that organisation launched the Pipe Major Donald Macleod Memorial Competition in honour of Iain Murdo Morrison’s boyhood mentor, and he was handed the responsibility to organise the event every year.
Death of acclaimed Lewis piper
18 December 2020
Northern Meeting
Pipe Major lain Murdo Morrison