Pipe Major - British Army

British Army

A Pipe Major position is an appointment and not a military rank. As such, they are required to attain a senior non-commissioned officer rank (Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Colour Sergeant, or Warrant Officer) and have successfully completed the Pipe Major's Course at the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming before they would be appointed the regiment's Pipe Major. Since the pipes and drums of an infantry regiment are normally required to take on a secondary role as a machine gun platoon, the Pipe Major is responsible for the following additional tasks:

  • Be the platoon's operational commander or second-in-charge during military exercises or war
  • Ensure military discipline among members of the Pipes & Drums
  • Be a transmitter of regimental history and customs

The Pipe Major is usually referred to and addressed as "Pipe Major" and not by his rank. The insignia of appointment is four point-up chevrons worn on the lower sleeve, usually surmounted by a bagpipes badge and frequently by a crown or other badge dependent on rank and regiment.

Read more about this topic:  Pipe Major

Famous quotes containing the words british and/or army:

    His work was that curious mixture of bad painting and good intentions that always entitles a man to be called a representative British artist.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    Man is the end of nature; nothing so easily organizes itself in every part of the universe as he; no moss, no lichen is so easily born; and he takes along with him and puts out from himself the whole apparatus of society and condition extempore, as an army encamps in a desert, and where all was just now blowing sand, creates a white city in an hour, a government, a market, a place for feasting, for conversation, and for love.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)