Pretoria highlanders pipes & drums

Pretoria Highlanders Pipe Band is a volunteer civilian pipe band, dedicated to providing the highest

Pretoria Highlanders Regiment had been found at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, an early band was established wearing the Royal Stewart tartan.

A post war pipe band was formed during 1979. The Officer Commanding at this stage, Cmdt Brahm Botes with Dick Webb as 21C, tasked Pipe Major Alan Watters, who had distinguished himself during the Second World War and was a member of the Black Watch Regiment in Scotland, to establish a local pipe band.

Under the command of the new OC, Major Hank Kaal, the band flourished and soon started participating in local highland gatherings. Within a few years the Pretoria Highlanders hosted their own gathering at CBC Old Boys Club in Groenkloof. They were also active participants in the Durban Tattoo. The first chapter in the band’s history closed when they piped at the funeral of Pipey Alan Watters at the Waterkloof Catholic Church in July 1999.

At the 40th Pretoria Boys’ High School Pipe Band anniversary celebrations, held in August 2011, a host of ex PH band members attended and the idea of reviving the band was birthed. At least two new pipe bands had been launched in South Africa in the previous twelve months, and as they had had less to work with than the current crop of ex PH members present at the anniversary, it seemed a real possibility that the Pretoria Highlanders’ pipe band could be resurrected. Three senior pipers of the old band started meeting regularly to play their bagpipes at the University of Pretoria’s Experimental Farm. On 6th August 2012 they were joined by more pipers and other enthusiastic drummers.

The pipe band participated at their first gathering on 13 April 2013 under the leadership of Pipe Major Gordon Delaney.

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