Appreciation: David Moore

Tropical forester, carpenter, piper and pipe-maker, David Moore brought his knowledge of timbers to the early days of the cauld wind pipes. This appreciation is based on a eulogy given at his funeral by his son, Hamish Moore

DAVID MOORE'S particular contribution to the bellows pipes revival in Scotland was just one facet of an extraordinary life, during the latter years of which he brought woodworking skills and a forester's knowledge of tropical timbers to the lathe, and to his talks to the LBPS and articles for this journal.

David, who died on 24 October, aged 90, was born on the 27th March 1919, the eldest child of James and Margaret Moore (nee Campbell). The family lived at 60 Wellfield Street in Springburn and his father, James, was employed as an iron driller, making steam locomotives, in the districts then thriving heavy engineering industry Springburn at that time was a thriving

community based largely round the engineering works of Cowlairs and Hydepark and a big part of David's early life was the local Boys Brigade, where he learned to play the pipes and became an active member of their pipe band.

He left Albert High at the age of 14 to take up a six-year apprenticeship with the firm of Iain Mars, sign writers and gilders, and to this day there are a few signs left in Scotland which he lettered. At the outbreak of the Second World War David enlisted with the 51st Highland Division and was among the thousands taken prisoner at St Valery, Normandy, in June, 1940. However, he used his time as a POW, when not working as a medic in the camp hospital, to start studying and, with encouragement from officers in the camp and textbooks supplied by the Red Cross, took his London University Matriculation in 1941, going on to pass his first year university degree subjects of chemistry, physics, zoology and botany.

Returning to Scotland in 1945, he completed the practical elements of his course, initially while stationed at Edinburgh Castle, when the authorities allowed him to visit the Botanic Gardens and the University Forestry faculty in George Square. He completed his course over the next three years, having married Agnes Sutherland in September 1945.

After graduating in forestry in 1948, and reverting to freelance sign writing to make ends meet during a period of unemployment, he eventually joined the Colonial Service and was posted to Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies, returning to Oxford University after two years' probation to complete a post-graduate degree in tropical forestry By the mid- 1950s he had been promoted to Conservator of Forests in Trinidad and Tobago, whose teak plantations were the oldest and largest in the western hemisphere. His appointment also made him Chief Game Warden, responsible for the rich diversity of wildlife in Trinidad and Tobago, and he particularly loved the tens of thousands of scarlet ibis which returned to roost each evening to the Caroni Swamp, on the outskirts the capital town of Port of Spain.

David's piping skills made him very welcome among the island's large Scottish population. He was appointed official piper to the community's thriving St. Andrews Society in 1948, continuing in the post until 1963 when he returned to Scotland. Hamish Moore recalls listening to his father piping round the quadrangle at his office when he practised - his father became Hamish's first piping teacher.

For his piper's garb, he had his Campbell kilt, which he himself had made in 1936, sent out from home and a pair of hose was purchased and also posted out. A local leather worker made shoes and belt to his specification and a tailor made the jacket. Agnes sewed her husband's lace jabot, but he still needed a sporran and looked for an appropriate pelt. When the leather-worker produced the pelt of a “protected” Trinidad wild cat, David had to avert his game-warden's eyes before accepting the offer.

The sporran chain was a cheap dog chain he had silver-plated by a friend and the copper front plate in copper was engraved and also silver plated. Hamish still has all these items - except the jacket, which succumbed to moths — and wore them in 2005 when he had the pleasure of returning to Trinidad with his fiddle-playing daughter, Fiona, to play at the St. Andrew's Ball. On that trip, they visited David's beloved teak plantations at Mount Harris and his old Forest Department in Port of Spain, where they were welcomed by his former staff.

David's other great pastime, particularly during his Trinidad days, was woodworking, making furniture and turning lamps and bowls. In his workshop at the forest department in Port of Spain, he made, assembled then dismantled a teak staircase, as well as the floors and window frames for the house in East Linton which he would build between coming home in July 1963 and heading off again to work as a United Nations Consultant in April 1964. He spent the latter years of his forestry career with the UN, living and working in Central and South America, Indonesia, Nepal, Africa and India.

Twenty five years ago, he and Agnes left their unique, custom-built teak house in East

Linton and moved to North Berwick - a place in which the family had often holidayed.

And when Hamish Moore gave up his career as a vet in 1985 to make pipes professionally, it was David who helped him, turning the first 20 sets of pipes and providing invaluable advice on tropical hardwoods. Piping enthusiasts as diverse as the LBPS, the Piobaireachd Society and the Pipers' Gathering at North Hero, Vermont, also benefited from David's expertise, as in the talk on Bagpipe Timbers, Past Present and Future he gave to the Society's Collogue in November 2007 (reprinted in Common Stock, Vol 22, No2, December 2007).

Speaking at his father's funeral in North Berwick (when he and his son Fin and daughter Fiona played pipes and fiddle), Hamish said. “Dad always loved to hear how the business was going and took an active interest right till the end.

“He always said that his Dad, James Moore, would have been fascinated with what I do now, all my lathes and gun drills and heavy engineering equipment. After all, Fin and I are basically drillers too. My grandfather drilled holes in steel - we drill holes in wood but the machines, methodology and procedures are just the same. If Grandpa Moore's engines sang, which they did, maybe Fin is the fourth generation doing the same thing.”