Pipe Major Alan B. Clark CD is one of the senior most Pipe Majors in the Canadian Armed Forces with over 37 years of service in the Canadian Army. He began piping in his hometown of Oldcastle, Ontario as a result of his father, a Haligonian whose family came from Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, who had played as a drummer in the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment. Alan first thought he might be a drummer taking after his father, drumming on the bottom of flipped upside-down chairs in their living room while listening to albums of the Scots Guards. But at some point, he asked if he could learn the pipes, resulting in both simultaneous disappointment and joy in the family.
So at the age of thirteen he began taking piping lessons under his first teacher, Gordon Stewart who was a piper with both the Thomas G Simms Memorial Pipe Band and the Windsor Police Pipe Band. One year later he was put under the tutelage of Pipe Major Colin Hill (grandson of Pipe Major Ron Hill of the 3rd Canadian Guards Regiment). Colin was the Pipe Major of the Kingsville Tom Simms Memorial band (eventually transitioning the name to Loch Traigh).
Thank you to Graeme Ogilvie for bringing together this story to Alan Clark himself for his input.
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