Pipe Major James "Robbie" Robertson was born on 23 August, 1886, at Scotsmill of Boyne, about two miles east of Portsoy.  When he was around five years of age he moved with his parents to Airdrie in Lanarkshire.  There he took up piping under Pipe Major William Sutherland, whose forebears had been pipers in Caithness for seven generations.

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In 1906 Robertson enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders, serving under Pipe Major GS MacLennan.  In 1913 he attended the Military Piping School in Inverness and was awarded a Sergeant Piper’s Certificate.

 

In August 1914 James Robertson was posted to France as a Pipe Major, part of the British Expeditionary Force.  Two weeks later his Battalion was captured and he spent the rest of the war as a POW.  He was not a model prisoner and was court-martialed by the Germans three times for refusing to do military work.  He became so difficult to his captors that he was sentenced to imprisonment for a year, much of it spent in solitary confinement.  It was during this time that he composed the pipe tune for which he is best known, “Farewell to the Creeks”.   While in prison, his memory took him back to a pleasant summer holiday he had spent with his uncle who lived in Portknockie, and his fond recollection of the Creeks of Portknockie where he had played as a boy.  Years later, he spoke of still being in possession of a piece of yellow blotting paper, on which he had first transcribed the famous pipe tune.

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James Robertson retired from the Army in 1927 and came to live in Macduff.  He was employed as janitor at Banff Academy from then until 1953.  During this time he tutored young people, served as a Special Constable and founded the Turriff and District Pipe Band.  Latterly, he judged in the Highland Games circuit at games such as Braemar, Aboyne and Lonach.

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He was a prolific composer, but “Farewell to the Creeks” became his best known tune, firstly because it was printed in an Army tutoring book, and was relatively easy for young pipers to learn.  Its enduring success however was because, during the Second World War, Hamish Henderson, whilst an Army officer serving in Sicily, was inspired to write his ‘51st (Highland) Division's Farewell to Sicily’ using Robertson’s tune.  It is said that Henderson’s composition was in turn to inspire Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin'.  ‘Farewell to Sicily’ would later be recorded by The McCalmans, Ewan MacColl, the Corries and Isla St Clair.

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The Kist o Riches website has nine recordings featuring Pipe Major James Robertson, recorded in 1952 by Hamish Henderson for the School of Scottish Studies. In the recordings he speaks about his life, about the war, and about his compositions.

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James Robertson died in 1961 at the age of 75.

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