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ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT

Notes:

1. This page provides a fairly detailed description of the organization, units, and equipment of the Wotanberger military. For a graphic summary, click here.

2. Formal unit name is in ALL CAPS, followed in some cases by its abbreviation [AC].

3. For an explanation of abbreviations/acronyms , click here.

4. Unit's English nickname, if any, is in "Quotes", or perhaps "Linked"

5. Unit's special insignia, if any, is available by clicking on Unit Insignia.

6. Units are not listed in order of precedence.

 

 

 

Since its creation in 1815, the Highlander Coy of Foot Guards, Sir Trevor's Own Foot has always had its "Pipes & Drums" which provided the music needed by any self-respecting Highlander unit to carry out its official--and unofficial--activities. Until late 1945, the Pipes & Drums was an ad hoc formation composed of 1 to 4 soldiers detached from each of the coy's regular plts (and, occasionally one or more pipers or drummers detached from another coy in Sir Trevor's Own Foot).

 

When Crown Prince (and Major) Victor von Weselstein returned to Wotanberg in 1945 with the combined Wotanberger and Free French force which ended Nazi Germany's so-called "quarantine" of the Grand Duchy, he was accompanied at the head of the column by the surviving piper and drummers of the Wotanberger Volunteer Group, augmented by the Pipe & Drums of the Highlander Coy. As the force marched up the road to Trevorstein playing the nation's national anthem, an almost mystical connection between bagpipes and freedom was forged in the minds and hearts of the nearly 35,000 people who lined the roadway.

 

This event made clear to the Crown Prince--and his father the Grand Duke--the desirability of expanding the coy's Pipes & Drums into a full-fledged band and establishing it as the coy's fifth plt so that it could be a permanent symbol of the nation's independence. This was done officially on Saint Andrews Day in 1945, although it took a number of years to fully fill out the ranks of the new plt.

 

In 1947, Major John "Jock" Sinclair--recently retired from active service in the British army*, agreed to become the Pipe Major of the band. He brought with him a number of excellent pipers recruited from his former regiment**. Under his leadership and training the coy's Pipes & Drums became virtually one of the best Highlander pipe and drum bands in Europe.

 

In 1960, shortly after the release of the motion picture Tunes of Glory*, Jock Sinclair offered his resignation to the Grand Duke to avoid any possible embarassment to the Grand Duchy. The Grand Duke not only refused to accept the tendered resignation, but appointed him as commander of the entire Regiment. When Jock Sinclair retired from active service in 1962, he became the the Regiments's Colonel in Chief. At the same time the plt was officially renamed in his honour.

 

Today, Sinclair's Pipe & Drums remain a living symbol of the the Grand Duchy's defiant independence. The band participate in nearly all official state ceremonies and represent the Grand Duchy at foreign events such as the VE Day Celebration held in Brendanberg, Germany each year.

 

By special permission of his Grand Ducal Highness, the band (and its individual members) may also perform at appropriate functions such as funerals, weddings, and Bar and Bas Mitzvah on a private basis. (To make arrangements in this regard, contact the band's Pipe Major here.)

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NOTES:

*An entertaining, though frequently inaccurate account of the circumstances leading up to Sinclair's early retirement is found in the 1960 motion picture Tunes of Glory, starring Sir Alec Guiness as Sinclair.

 

**One of these men was none other than the soldier Sinclair was accused of "bashing" in Tunes of Glory, Corporal Piper Ian Fraser. Fraser--with Sinclair's blessings--had married his daughter. Later Fraser became Pipe Major of the band and eventually the Commanding Officer of the coy.