Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The mounted group of nine miniature dress medals attributed to Pipe-Major J. McNicol, Black Watch

British Empire Medal, (Military) E.II.R.; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1953; Army L.S. & G.C., E.II.R., 1st issue, Regular Army, mounted as worn, very fine (9) £100-140

Referenced in Pipers of the Highland Regiments, 1854-1902.

B.E.M. London Gazette 1 January 1958.

John McNicol was born in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, on 31 December 1913, the son of Company Sergeant Major John McNicol, Black Watch, and attested in his father’s old Regiment on 20 November 1934. Posted to the 2nd Battalion on 17 April 1935, he was appointed a Piper, and served with the Regiment in Palestine from August 1937 to August 1940, and then during the Second World War in British Somaliland, Egypt, Crete, and Libya. Arriving in Tobruk in the summer of 1941, McNicol was promoted Sergeant on 17 July of that year, and on 20 November took part supporting the Battalion in a successful but costly sortie against the Germans beyond the perimeter of the city.

‘With the tunes of “Highland Laddie”, the attack was played in by Pipe-Major Roy and Pipe-Sergeant McNicol. The tunes sounded over the field and above all its noises. An officer who had been badly wounded in the arm and leg, wrote afterwards: “I would say that the Pipe-Major’s playing was instrumental in kindling the spirit with which the whole attack was carried out. I heard ‘Highland Laddie’ as I lay wounded and it was the tune that got me on my feet and advancing again.”’ Pipe-Major Roy was hit three times and was carried back to the Regimental Aid Post. McNicol, ‘by some miracle’ was untouched and played the Battalion on to its objective. The following day, 21 November, he was appointed Pipe-Major of the Battalion. Following their relief from Tobruk and service in the Western Desert, the Battalion embarked for Burma for service against the Japanese, operating as Chindits behind enemy lines.

Returning to Scotland after the end of the War, McNicol was posted to the 4th/5th Battalion as their Pipe Sergeant Instructor, and was advanced to Company Quartermaster Sergeant on 9 June 1952. He was awarded his Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1954, and was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 1958 New Year’s Honours’ List, being presented with his B.E.M. by H.M. the Queen Mother at Redford Barracks on 18 October 1958. He retired the following year, and died on 18 September 1988. Family tradition states that his full sized medals were buried alongside his wife.

Sold together with an original letter written by the recipient after enlisting into the Black Watch; various photographs and newspaper cuttings; and other research.