Help - can you identify the uniform?
 

I wonder if any of you can help me identify the uniform my great grandfather is wearing. I have tried to find a likeness but have not yet managed to.

His name was Alexander Morrison, I think this was taken around 1900. By his marriage in 1904 he was described as an Electrical Linesman at and his death in 1919 he was a coal miner.

This photo is what sparked my interest in family history but have never been able to identify the uniform.

Kind regards
Fionahttp://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/292...32768&pgpl=pid

Fiona

there is no pic visible.

Alan

Thanks Alan
 

Any good this time?


http://mediasvc.ancestry.com/image/7...93&MaxSide=500

Sergeant Piper (?), not sure of regiment but could be Cameron Highlanders from the colour of the hair and tassles on the sporran.

P.B.

I'm not an expert on pipers but that looks like government tartan to me (especially the shade side of him). Coupled with what looks like a dinner-plate size badge, I would stab at Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.

I'm not an expert on Scottish regiments (being a Sassenach) but a clue might be the blackcock feathers in the glengarry. I think only certain Scottish regiments wear/wore them, but I'd have to check which ones.
David

Thanks all - will investigate further :)

Its not Cameron's its Seaforths. They wore that style of sporran. Camerons have white tassels on black (just wore it a couple of weeks ago at the Regt dinner.)The feather is an eagles feather worn by pipers in most of the Regts (I think?)

Colin

If he was an electrical engineer he could have been a volunteer and the Seaforths had Coys at Dingwall, Tain, Fortrose, Munlochy, Ullapool, Invergordon, Evanton, Moy, Gairloch. This is the 1st Ross Bn.
1st Sutherland Bn had coys at Golsspie, Dornoch, Brora, Rogart, Bonar bridge, Lerwick, Thurso, Wick, Halkirk, Reay and Watten.
Maybe some of those places might ring a bell?

Hi Colin thanks for the information.

He was actually born in Shotts, Lanarkshire in 1878 but his father was from Duirnish and his mother from Kilfinichen, Argyll. By the time of his marriage in 1903 He was living in Bannockburn and had previously lived in Whitburn W Lothian.

By the 1911 census he is a coal miner living still in Bannockburn; both he and his wife are identified as speaking both Gaelic and English - so perhaps highland heritage was significant to him?

On his death in 1921 (not 19 as stated before) he was still (or once more) a coal miner. I had assumed the photograph was taken before his marriage in 1903, I had also assumed that miner was a reserved occupation in WW1 as it was in WW2. If you know of any online photographic resource for the Seaforths that would be very welcome.

Fiona

Hi All
I hope I'm not throwing a spanner in the works, but I have a doubt that that this is military. Pipe bands all tend to wear similar dress, and the lack of any insignia on the cross belt makes me doubt that it's military.
I would also expect a badge on the sporran cantle, and although the photo isn't very clear, it doesn't really look like there is a badge there.
Cheers,
Alex

Hi Alex, not necessarily a spanner and perhaps even some closure - I have been trying to resolve this since my own dad died in 2002, when I realised I was running out of people to ask about things like this. Would a non-military piper have a rank badge? That is what made me think it was military.
Fiona

Alex,
That certainly is a possibility. The sporran cantle dosnt look like they pictures in my books of the Seaforth pipers, they all seem to show a badge. Seaforth recruiting area is a long way off from the area he seems to come from but it does happen. The tents in the background look military but he could have been visiting.

Yes, non-military bands do wear ranks so its not helpful.

Colin

I think that he is Gordon Highlanders as he has two black tassels on his sporran. I think that the tents in the back ground show a military camp. There are medal index cards for 27 Gordon Highlanders called Alexander Morrison.

Seaforths and Gordons have the same type of sporran but it is the cantle that is not like either the Seaforths or Gordons pipers pictures I have. Both of those Regiments have badges on the pipers sporrans. And as Alex says there is no badge on the baldrick which both the units have as well.
It is possible that he is a civilian piper that was playing at a military camp. There are lots of pictures of civillians at military encampments so just because you are there dosnt make you a soldier.