Today I played my bagpipes at the final funeral for the Warwickshire Firefighters who were tragically killed a few weeks ago. The whole thing was very moving. It started off marching the family from their house the short distance to the fire station, where the hydraulic platform was waiting with the coffin, flanked by Firefighters in ceremonial dress. We let the procession down the road to the church where the service was to be held. After the service, we played the coffin out to Flowers of the Forest, a very nice slow air. We then had a police escort to the crematorium (that was fun and scary having Police bikes whizzing past) where we played outside as people entered and again as they left.

Last week I also played at the first of the four funerals, doing a similar thing. Both funerals were very individual, and a very fitting tribute to those brave young men.

Video of me on the BBC news. If you can’t recognise me, I’m the piper on the left of the screen (on the right of the procession). This was broadcast on the BBC evening news last Friday. I was also on BBC Radio 1 news playing the bagpipes. That’s my moment of fame for this year!