Poignant tribute to fallen piper

Private Richard Maybin, who was originally from the village, had travelled to Canada to find work in the years before the outbreak of the war.

He was among many emigrants who enlisted into the Canadian Army. Richard was killed on the 2nd June 1916 aged 21 years, during a major German assault in The Ypres Salient, where 80% of his regiment became casualties on one day. Private Richard Maybin is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium and at 1st Broughshane Presbyterian Church.

After his death, his personal effects and bagpipes were returned to his mother, Mrs Margaret Maybin who lived in the townland of Lisnamurrican, where they remained in a trunk in the attic for more than half a century before being discovered and restored by Mr Harold Bennett of Carricklongfield, Dungannon.

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association Northern Ireland Branch, (RSPBANI) decided to participate in the Living Memory project, a project which remembers the “forgotten front” - the 300,000 war graves and commemorations in the UK.

To mark the Battle of the Somme Centenary through the Living Memory Project, the RSPBANI Branch held a Slow Air/Lament Pipe Tune Composer’s Competition in July of this year and felt it fitting that the tune should be named in memory of Private Richard Maybin.

The winning tune was composed by Iain Bell from Dumfries, Scotland and was played at 1st Broughshane Presbyterian Church on November 2 by RSPBANI Branch Project Manager, Ian Burrows on the pipes that belonged to Private Maybin.A framed copy of the tune was also presented to George McMullan, Clerk of Session, 1st Broughshane Presbyterian Church by RSPBANI Branch President Winston Pinkerton. Members of Broughshane and District Pipe Band also attended the commemoration and presentation.