Grandson’s search for family pipes

Innes Common has appealed to the piping community and people the length and breadth of Dumfries and Galloway to help him track down a set of pipes which originally belonged to his grandfather.
The Henderson bagpipes are decorated with silver and ivory and 35-year-old Innes believes they were made around 1950.
He said: “They were my grandfather’s and then passed on to my father, but they were never played and were stored away for years.
“When I was a drumming instructor at the Army School Of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming I had one of my good friends and piping instructor Rod Weir have a look at them and he got them up and running again.
“My father then decided that as nobody in the family played pipes that he would rather have them played than stored away again.”
So they were then given to family friend, the late pipe major Tony McDonald who again got them up and running.
Mr Common said: “I believe he passed them onto a piper from Newton Stewart to play rather than remain unplayed.
“Unfortunately Tony lost his fight with cancer and the bagpipes remained with the unknown piper from Newton Stewart.”
Desperate to be reunited with the pipes, Innes is offering a small reward to whomever gives the information that leads to their return.
He said: “I understand that this is a long shot but I also know that the pipe band world can be a small one and somebody out there knows their whereabouts.
“It would mean a lot to me and my family as they have been passed down from generation to generation and I’m hoping that my son Logan may want to learn the pipes in the future – and therefore he would play them.
“Also, as I’m an ex military drum major (1 Scots 1st Bn The Royal Regiment Of Scotland), I still have friends in the military who would love to play them.”
Anyone with any information should contact Innes by emailing [email protected].