06/03/2026
As we remember the anniversary of D-Day on June 6th, read about the historic Bagpiper Bill Millin.
Piper Bill Millin plays for commandos of 45 (RM) Commando, 1st Special Service Brigade, as they wait to embark on LCIs at Warsash, Southampton for the DDay Landings in Normandy - 3 June 1944
A Canadian-born Scottish bagpiper, Bill Millin was the personal piper to Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, commander of the British 1st Special Service Brigade on DDay.
He is best remembered for playing the bagpipes while under fire during the DDay landings in Normandy.
The use of bagpipes was restricted to rear areas during WW2, but Lovat ignored these orders and ordered Millin to play during the landings. When Millin cited the regulations, Lovat reportedly replied: "Ah, but that's the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn't apply".
Millin played "Highland Laddie", "The Road to the Isles", and "All The Blue Bonnets Are Over the Border" as his fellow soldiers fell around him on Sword Beach. He was the only soldier during the landings who wore a kilt, it was the same Cameron tartan kilt his father had worn in Flanders during WW1. He also played the bagpipes as they advanced to the Pegasus Bridge to relive the British Airborne Soldiers who had captured it.
His DDay bagpipes are at the Dawlish Museum in Devon England, a 2nd set of bagpipes he used later in the war after the first set was damaged, are at the Pegasus Bridge Museum in Normandy.
Millin played the bagpipes at Lord Lovat's funeral in 1995, he passed away at the age of 88 on 17 August 2010.
Millin was portrayed in the 1962 film “The Longest Day” by Pipe Major Leslie de Laspee.
Evans (Capt) Photographer
IWM H 39039 WWP-PD
