Career

He started playing bagpipes at the age of four and a half under Pipe Major David Kay. He enlisted as a boy soldier in The Royal Highland Fusiliers and was sent for training to Bridge of Don, where he came under the guidance of Pipe Major Iain M. Morrison (Queen"s Own Highlanders). Gordon had two years of instruction with Iain before he joined the battalion in West Berlin.

Steady progress through the ranks followed when Gordon was invited to take the Pipe Major"s certificate at Edinburgh Castle and passed with Distinguished honours.

He subsequently saw active service in the Gulf war in 1991 and tours of duty in Bosnia in 1995 and Northern Ireland in 1996. Later in his army career he had Piobaireachd tuition from the late Captain Andrew Pitkeathly, former personal piper to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Director of Army Bagpipe Music.

Achievements

• He won the Gold Medal at Oban in 1993, and at Inverness the following year, and the Open Piobaireachd at Oban in 1995 and 2007. But it was his prowess as a light music player that attracted the most attention. He won the Former Winners March, Strathspey and Reel at Oban in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2003, 2004 and 2005, and at Inverness in 1990, 1993, 2000, 2001. He won the Glenfiddich Championship in 2007.