About The Teeswater Highlanders

The band wears the Ancient MacDonald of the Isles tartan — a nod to our history and our founder.

November 11, 1960 was a very cold day, and veterans of the wars were marching away from the Teeswater Cenotaph, led by a single piper, K. Bruce MacDonald.

One citizen, while leaving the service, remarked that it would be nice if the town had a band again. As a result of that conversation, steps were taken and the Teeswater Highlanders played in their first parade on August 1, 1963.

The band was comprised of ten pipers, one bass drummer and three side drummers. The instructor was William Millar, who at the time was Pipe Major of the Goderich Pipe Band. Hugh L. McKague was President of the band, Gordon Cerson was Vice-President and Ron Lamont was Secretary-Treasurer (a position he held until January, 2002).

The tartan that the band chose to wear was the Ancient Cameron. Each member had to pay for his own kilt ($45) plus his own bagpipes ($150). The side drums were provided for the drummers, although they had to buy the sticks. The Lions Club donated two of the drums, and the other one was bought by the Treasury of the band. The bass drum was donated by the members of the inactive Concert Band in memory of their bandmaster, A. Stutt.

The Pipe Band competed at Fergus in 1964, Class C, winning a First and a Certificate of Merit, plus a trophy. Thus encouraged, the members continued to take part in many Ontario competitions, making a very creditable show at parades, fairs and weddings in the local community.

Members of the original band included Watson Armstrong, Doug McGlynn, Ron Lamont, Bruce MacDonald, Bob Colvin, Mac Armstrong, Jim McKinnon, Gord Cerson, Bob Worrall, Ian Grant, Alan Grant, Brian McKague, Gilbert Roane, Ron Sillick, Terry Sillick, John Laird, Bill Sewers and James Sewers and Mary O’Malley. The first female Highlander was Rosemary Forsyth, who played snare drum in the late 1960s.

Gradually the younger members became more involved in their careers; many moved away. By the late 1970s, engagments had to be curtailed, and in 1983 — for the first time in two decades — the band did not participate in the annual Burns Night celebration. For the next 15 years the band was inactive, though a few members continued to march in the annual Remembrance Day parade, and an Executive remained in office.

In 1998 Bruce MacDonald approached some of the former members (Ron Lamont, Mary O’Malley, Alan Grant, Dave McDonald, Terry Sillick) to determine if the Highlanders might be revived in Teeswater. Subsequently a group of beginners began taking lessons at the Town Hall in the Fall of that year. In November, 2001 the newly-fledged Highlanders played in public for the first time at the Teeswater Fall Fair.

Pipe Major K. Bruce MacDonald was killed in a vehicle accident near Mildmay, Ontario on Tuesday, February 18, 2020. He was the soul and guiding light of the Teeswater Highlanders, always patient, ever knowledgeable. And it worked: under his leadership the Teeswater Highlanders came to be admired and respected as one of the better street bands in Ontario. No-one who was active in the Band during that time will ever forget him.

Members of the Teeswater Highlanders