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:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“This fantastic state of mind, of a humanity that has outrun its ideas, is matched by a political scene in the grotesque style, with Salvation Army methods, hallelujahs and bell-ringing and dervishlike repetition of monotonous catchwords, until everybody foams at the mouth. Fanaticism turns into a means of salvation, enthusiasm into epileptic ecstacy, politics becomes an opiate for the masses, a proletarian eschatology; and reason veils her face.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)