Lone Piper from Dundee Plays at Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres

On Thursday evening 3 July 2014, Dundee's Kieran Murray paraded with members of the 1333 Squadron (Grangemouth) Air Training Corps at the Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres. Nineteen year old Kieran played a solo lament on the pipes to an attentive crowd of around a 1000. Many nationalities were represented. They had gathered to honour the memory of the soldiers of the former British Empire and its allies, who died in the Ypres Salient during the First World War. 

Kieran, a former pupil of Craigie High School, is a member of 1232 (City of Dundee) Squadron, Air Training Corps. He had joined with the ATC group from Grangemouth who were visiting the war graves on the Western Front.

It was a remarkable coincidence to meet a young citizen from Dundee on Thursday afternoon at the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Cemetery. I was visiting Tyne Cot with my wife Rowena to honour the memory of her maternal grand father, Private Tom Boynette, wo served with the Northumberland Fusiliers and died near Ypres.

In the course of our conversation with Kieran, we discovered that one of his weekly practices is at the Borough Halls in The Ferry just along the road from where we live. It's a small world! 

We had planned to attend the daily last post at the Menin gate in Ypres. Meeting Kieran earlier in the day provided an additional connection with the Last Post ceremony and my home city.