September 15, 2011
Elliot Smith is First to Receive New Piping Scholarship
Elliot Smith, an award-winning bagpiper at Lyon College, has received the first Bill Millin Scholarship awarded by the Clan Currie Society. Smith, a junior from Concord, N.H., is a member of the Lyon Pipe Band and a top competitor in piping competitions across the country.
The Private Bill Millin Memorial Piping Scholarship was established by the Clan Currie Society to go to a student enrolled at Lyon College for the study of piping.
Selection of the recipient is made by Lyon College based on financial need and personal merit.
Piper Elliott Smith received Clan Currie’s Bill Millin Memorial Scholarship in 2011
Smith is earning a degree in music with bagpiping as the primary instrument. Lyon is a top-tier liberal arts college featuring an acclaimed Scottish Arts program run by Pipe Major James “Jimmy” Bell. Smith said that having the opportunity to play frequently with such a high-caliber instructor as Bell is the best part of Lyon. “Piping is accessible every day, like living at a summer piping camp year round,” he said.
Smith plays competitively in Canada and the U.S. from January to November. In 2010, he won the Senior Amateur Piobaireachd at Maxville, Ontario, Canada and tied for overall second place in Grade 1 Amateur in the Eastern United States Piping Association, the governing body of amateur piping. In the same year he also attended the Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational in Albany, N.Y., the George Sherriff Memorial in Hamilton, Ontario, and the Metro Cup Invitation in Newark, N.J.
In the 2011 season, Smith continues to place in the top ranks of all his events. He returned to play at the 2011 Metro Cup Invitational and he also played at the United States Piping Foundation Invitational, where he won second place overall.
Smith has won four of his seven piobaireachd events in the United States, receiving a prestigious Above Grade Level for his performance at the Glasgow Lands Highland Games and placing second in the Senior Amateur Piobaireachd during his return to Maxville, Canada. Smith has also had a strong 2011 season with his light music, winning 13 of his 21 events.
Smith also plays with the Stuart Highlanders Pipe Band from Wilmington, Mass., which attended the Pipe Band World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, in August. The Stuart Highlanders bagpipe section won the overall prize and the band received fifth overall during their first overseas appearance.
Clan Currie established the Millin Scholarship in memory of William “Piper Bill” Millin, the Scottish bagpiper who played Highland tunes as his fellow commandos landed on Normandy beach on D-Day in World Ward II. He died August 17, 2010, at age 88 in Devon, England.
The Clan Currie Society honored Millin’s heroism with a special tribute at their 12th annual Pipes of Christmas concerts.
Immortalized in the 1962 film, “The Longest Day,” Millin was a 21-year-old private in Britain’s First Special Service Brigade on June 6, 1944, when his unit landed on a strip of beach code-named Sword Beach. Millin was summoned by the brigade’s commanding officer, Brigadier Simon Fraser, the 15th Lord Lovat and Hereditary Chief of the Clan Fraser.
Despite orders dating back to World War I that prohibited the playing of bagpipes in battle conditions due to the high risk of attracting enemy fire, Lovat directed Millin to play on the beachhead. Following orders, Millin marched up and down Sword Beach playing the tunes requested of him from Lovat, including “Highland Laddie” and “The Road to the Isles.”
His worst moments were when he was playing among the wounded. They were shocked to see Millen strolling up and down playing the bagpipes. To feel so helpless, Millin said afterwards, was horrifying.
For many soldiers, however, the piper provided a unique boost to their morale. Many years later, one of those soldiers, Tom Duncan, said, “I shall never forget hearing the skirl of Bill Millin’s pipes. It is hard to describe the impact it had. It gave us a great lift and increased our determination. As well as the pride we felt, it reminded us of home and why we were there fighting for our lives and those of our loved ones.”
Millin was born in Glasgow in 1922 and lived with his family in Canada before returning to Scotland. After the war he found work on Lord Lovat’s estate near Inverness and later returned to piping as a member of a traveling theater company. In 1995, Millin played the pipes at Lord Lovat’s funeral.
Robert Currie, president of the Clan Currie Society, said of Millin’s death, “Scotland has lost one of her last great heroes of the Second World War. Bill Millin represented all that was expected of a Scots soldier and piper: brave, determined and larger than life.”
Today, the Clan Currie continues to play an active role in preserving and promoting their highland heritage at Scottish Games, ethnic festivals, as well as community groups and classrooms. The Society produces a number of highly successful concerts featuring Scottish music and Gaelic poetry, including “The Pipes of Christmas,” a stable of the New York City holiday scene.
About Lyon College
Lyon College was established in 1872 by the Presbyterian church. During the 1980s college administrators thought to honor the Scottish roots of the church and the school by creating a Scottish Heritage Program. Since that time the program has grown, and given birth to an internationally recognized pipe band, a Highland dance program, a minor in Scottish music, a music major with bagpipes as the primary instrument, and the premier Scottish festival in the region.
The mission of the Scottish Heritage Program is to serve as ambassadors for Lyon College, to continue to preserve and promote Scottish music, history, and traditions through such activities as the The Arkansas Scottish Festival; Lyon College Pipe Band; Community Outreach; and by partnering with area churches in kirkin’ o’ the tartan worship services.