大象传媒

Regimental Seargent Major Thomas R Jelley, my grandfather, spent his 20th birthday on the beaches of Dunkirk, bunkered down, avoiding the myriad of armory being leveled at his unit by the Nazi guns and Stuka dive-bombers. After three days and nights of constant bombardment many in his unit where becoming shell shocked and stir crazy from the unrelenting pressure of the German attack. His unit, being Scottish, drew solos from the sound of the bagpipes so he would play them between the lulls in the fighting at considerable risk to himself.
There turn to evacuate finally came and they boarded there boat accompanied by my Grandfather playing the pipes. The boat only made it a mile or so offshore before it was hit by a Stuka's bomb and began sinking. All on board had to swim for there lives and Tom, not being an exceptionally strong swimmer, used his bagpipes case as a floatation device until he was picked up by another vessel.
My Grandfather, his pipes and the original case survived the ordeal until November 2003 when he passed away at the age of 83. The ordeal though was as vivid in his memory on the day he died as it was on the day he landed home again. He never forgot those that he left behind and became a member of the Dunkirk Veterans Association to make sure others never forgot either.
He stopped playing the pipes for many years after the war but picked them up again about 10 years ago when he became a member of the British Airways Pipe Band who play there music all over the world. They became his Pipes of Peace delivering the sound of his beloved Scotland to the rest of the world.

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